LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 




Shelf_ 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



MEMOIRS 



Joseph W. Pickett, 

Missionary Superintendent hi Southern Iowa and in the Rocky 
Mountains for the American Ho?ne Missionary Society. 



By WILLIAM SALTER. 



So close is glory to our dust, 

So near is God to man, 
When Duty whispers low, Thou must, 

The yout h re plies, I can. 

— Emerson. 




BURLINGTD TT, IOVT A: JAMES LOVE. 
COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO: MRS. S. B. PICKETT. 

1880. 



For sale by the Congregational Publishing Society, Boston, Mass. 



TT 



I 



rum LIBRARY 
OF CONGRESS 

WASHINGTON 






COPYRIGHT, 
BY WILLIAM SALTER, 



Printed by Geo. H. Ellis> 101 Milk Street, Boston. 



CONTENTS, 



CHAPTER I. 

EARLY LIFE, ANCESTRY, EDUCATION. 

Page 
Birth — Parents — New England Ancestry — Andover, Ohio, . . 9 
Childhood — Love of Nature — At Kingsville Academy and Alle- 
ghany College, 13 

Farm-work — Religious Experience, 14 

Teacher in Tennessee — Tour in East Tennessee and No. Carolina, 15 
Ascent of Mount Mitchell — At Yale College and Andover 

Seminary, 16 

CHAPTER II. 

MINISTRY AT WENTWORTH, N.H., AND MOUNT PLEASANT, IOWA. 

Ordination — Marriage — Happy Ministry — Other Fields calling, . 20 

Visit West — Ministry at Mount Pleasant, 22 

Among Sick and Wounded Soldiers — In Tennessee, 24 

At Stevenson, Alabama — At Chattanooga, 26 

Before Atlanta — At Marietta, Georgia — Ascent of Kenesaw, . . 32 

Death of Wife — Call to Missionary Superintendence, 34 

CHAPTER III. 

SUPERINTENDENT OF HOME MISSIONS IN SOUTHERN IOWA. 

Work of the Home Missionary Society in Iowa, 35 

South-western Iowa — Work in New Towns, 36 

Character and Success of his Labors, 37 

His Paper, Church Work, 42 



6 Contents. 

Five Letters to the Children of Iowa : — 

I. Have a Plan in Life, 42 

II. Habits, 44 

III. Every Child to do his Duty — Mind, Morals, and 

Religion to be Cultivated, 46 

IV. Prayer-Triangles— Life a Copy-book, 49 

V. Goodness, 51 

The Past, Present, and Future of Iowa, 52 

Weakness in Churches, 54 

Provide Things Honest, 55 

Denominational Comity, 56 

Congregational Order adapted to unite New Communities, ... 57 

Congregational Order and Sectarianism, 59 

To his Mother, on his Forty-fourth Birthday, 60 

A Church Enlarged, 61 

The Importance of Systematic Giving : — 

Demands for Increasing Liberality, 63 

Limits of Ability to Give, 64 

The only Adequate Motive, . 65 

A Law Older than Moses, 66 

A Definite Portion — Objections — Advantages, 67 

Importance of a High Ideal to Churches and Ministers, .... 69 

A Night Ride, 70 

Temperance Revival, 71 

Importance of the Thorough Christianization of the United States, 72 
Missionary Exploration of Colorado in 1874: — 

History and Resources of Colorado, 74 

Religious Condition of Colorado, 76 

His Love for Iowa, 80 

Appointment to Colorado in 1878, 81 

Marriage — Farewell to Iowa Brethren, 82 

His Life at Des Moines, by Rev. A. L. Frisbie, 83 

CHAPTER IV. 

SUPERINTENDENT AND GENERAL MISSIONARY IN THE ROCKY MOUN- 
TAINS. 

A Sabbath in South Pueblo, 87 

San Luis Park, 89 



Contents, 7 

In the Snow in June, 90 

Pagosa Springs, 92 

Among the Mountaineers, 93 

Silverton — A Gambler's Funeral, 96 

Anvil and Hazelton Mountains, 97 

Gamblers' Contribution to a Sunday-school Library, 98 

Importance of Christian Union, 99 

The Black Hills 100 

Among Robbers, '. . . 101 

Sixty-six Hours of Staging — Lead City, 103 

Deadwood — Spearflsh — Plan of an Academy, 106 

A Gold Brick — Galena — Crook City, 108 

Rapid City — Rockerville, 109 

Mid-winter Labors, 112 

The Week of Prayer at Lead City, 113 

A Winter Walk, 114 

Permanent Pastors Needed, 115 

Beauty of the Black Hills, 115 

To his Mother, on his Forty-seventh Birthday, 116 

Over Hills and Ravines, 117 

An Eshcol Bunch of Churches, 118 

Emigration to Western Colorado, 119 

Barbarism the First Danger, 120 

Southern Colorado — Coal Creek— Rosita — Silver Cliff, . . . 121 

Denver — The Plains in Spring — The Midnight Heavens, . . . 122 

From Denver to Leadville, 124 

Carbonateville — Kokomo, 126 

A Journey to Hartford, Conn., 127 

Building a Church at Leadville, 128 

The Gunnison River Country, 129 

Crested Butte — Hillerton, 129 

Lumber and Shingles for the Leadville Church, 131 

Last Visit to the Black Hills, 131 

Rockerville — Deadwood — Custer, 132 

Another Week of Labor at Leadville, 133 

Rest at Home — The Colorado Association, 133 

" Off for Leadville " — In Denver, 135 

A Mountain Storm, 136 

Overturning of Stage — Death, 138 



8 Contents. 

Funeral Services at Leadville and Colorado Springs : — 

Address of Rev. R. T. Cross, 139 

Tributes to his Memory : — 

J. Teesdale — E. Van Cise, 143 

C. C. Salter — J. Adams, 144 

C.M.Sanders — The " Home Missionary," 145 

Lines suggested by his Death, by J. W. Phillips, 145 

His Character and Life-work, 147 



MEMOIRS 

OF 

JOSEPH W. PICKETT. 



CHAPTER I. 

EARLY LIFE, ANCESTRY, EDUCATION. 

JOSEPH WORTHY PICKETT was born at Andover, 
Ashtabula County, Ohio, January 28, 1832. His 
ancestors were among the early settlers of New 
England, who left the mother country in the Puritan 
emigration of the reign of Charles I. He was of the 
sixth generation from John Pickett, who came from 
the County of Kent, England ; settled in Salem, Conn., 
1648; moved to Stratford, 1660, and died April 11, 
1684. The following is the line of descent: — 

1. Daniel, 1652-1688. 

2. Samuel, 1682-1761. 

3. John, 1716 — February, 1807; married Elizabeth 
Meeker ; moved to Sandisfield, Berkshire County, 
Mass. 

4. John, June, 1753 — October, 1840; married Ruth 
Boardman, 1759 — March 25, 1806, of Middletown, 
Conn. He was a soldier of the Revolution ; repre- 
sentative from Sandisfield in the Massachusetts Con- 



io Memoirs of Joseph W. Pickett, 

vention of 1788, which ratified the Constitution of the 
United States ; and in the House of Representatives of 
Massachusetts from 1789 to 1796, and from 1804 to 
18 1 3 ; also a justice of peace for many years in the 
same town ; and moved to the unbroken forest of 
North-eastern Ohio in 18 19, with his three sons, John, 
Joseph, and 

5. Benjamin, July 22, 1795 — April 26, 1873 ; married 
Lydia Ophelia Birchard, of Crawford County, Penn., 
January 8, 1822. 

6. Joseph W. 

His mother is a native of Becket, Berkshire County, 
Mass., and of the sixth generation from Thomas Bir- 
chard, who was born at Roxbury, England, in 1595 ; 
came from England in the ship "True Love," 1635; 
was made a freeman of Boston, 1637; settled at Say- 
brook, Conn., and died 1684. This is her line of 
descent : — 

1. John, one of the original proprietors of Norwich, 
Conn. 

2. James, 1665-1745. 

3. James, 1699-1786; moved, 1755, to Becket. 

4. James, 1 731-1820; one of the first selectmen, and 
the first treasurer of Becket. His only son was 

5. James. 

In the autumn of 18 12, he started with his family, the 
oldest child eighteen, the youngest two years of age, 
for the "Far West." They carried their household 
goods, provisions, and bedding in one heavy wagon, 
drawn by two yoke of oxen and a horse. Another 



His Parents. II 

wagon, drawn by three horses, took lighter articles and 
the family. Many were the mishaps and hardships of 
the wilderness. Now and then the wagons were upset 
or stuck in the mud. Several nights were spent with 
no shelter but the woods. For one hundred and fifty 
miles, they passed down the Alleghany River in flat- 
boats. After six weeks' weary travel, they reached the 
tract that had been selected for their home, seven miles 
north of Meadville, Penn. Here, coming some years 
afterward as a teacher into an adjoining school district, 
Benjamin Pickett found his wife. 

6. Lydia, born November 29, 1802. 

Andover was then a township in the woods, five 
miles square. No roads had been made on its eastern 
side, where Benjamin Pickett had located. The only 
guides in going from place to place were blazed trees. 
The new home was a log structure, without window or 
chimney, the apertures between the unchinked logs 
furnishing light, and an opening in the roof carrying 
off the smoke. Thus they lived for the first year. 
Most of the neighbors were newly married people, and 
similarly situated. As busy years rolled on, the land 
was cleared for pasture and tillage, additions and 
improvements were made to the cabin, and support 
and comfort secured for the growing family. Here 
the subject of this memoir was born, the fifth of eight 
children. 

He early showed conscientiousness, truthfulness, and 
a love of knowledge. Before he was three years old, 
he would place two chairs facing each other, and coax 



12 Memoirs of Joseph W. Pickett. 

his elder brother to read to him. At five, he was a 
good reader. Warm in filial feeling, he loved to help 
his mother on washing days, gathering wood for her 
fire by the brook, and sharing her simple lunch in the 
shade. As he grew in strength, he assisted his father 
in the heavy labors of the farm. These were the happy 
memories of his childhood. 

When seven years old, his father gave him a pocket- 
knife, greatly to his delight. The need of a new house 
was at that time the household talk. The children's 
hearts were set upon it. But the careful father, scan- 
ning the cost and his resources in the presence of the 
family, decided that he could not afford to build. This 
filled Joseph with sorrow. With tears in his eyes, he 
went into the forest to weep and think by himself. As 
he reflected that his father could not build for want of 
means, he remembered that his new knife had cost 
something, and he at once resolved what to do. He 
returned to the cabin, handed the treasure to his father, 
and said : " Here is my knife, father. Take it back to 
the store, and get the money. I can do without it." 
The father's heart was touched to tears, and he said, 
"Joseph, keep your knife, and we will build the new 
house. " The willing self-sacrifice of the boy had 
kindled new energy in the man. There was no more 
faltering until the family moved into a new house, one 
of the best appointed dwellings in the township. It 
stands upon a hill, close to a charming piece of woods 
of fifty acres. Hon. Ben. Wade, visiting here when 
the orchard was in full bloom, called it one of the 
pleasantest places he ever saw. 



At School and College. 1 3 

The charm and beauty of nature won the boy's heart. 
He remembered through life the impressions which 
flowers and woods and the south wind made upon him 
when five years of age. In after years, Ruskin was one 
of his favorite authors. 

He attended school a portion of each year in a log 
school-house three-quarters of a mile distant, until he 
was sixteen, when he entered the academy in Kings- 
ville, on the shore of Lake Erie, for the fall term. At 
nineteen, he entered Alleghany College, at Meadville, 
Penn. Obliged to practise close economy, he rented 
a room, obtained provisions from home, did his own 
cooking, and frequently managed to live upon fifty 
cents a week. In the Junior year, he took the Hasel- 
tine Prize Medal for the best English composition. He 
graduated in 1855. His theme at Commencement was 
" Plato and his Philosophy." While in the academy 
and at college, he taught school during the winter 
months. Showing a superior faculty for instruction, 
he won the hearts of scholars, and gained honor and 
esteem in every community where he was employed. 
He thus obtained means to defray the expenses of his 
own education. 

From early youth, he took part in literary and debat- 
ing societies, and won repute as a ready speaker and 
an ingenious and able disputant. In the political can- 
vass of 1848, he listened to the humor and eloquence 
of Thomas Corwin and to the strong and persuasive 
arguments of Joshua R. Giddings. 

The heavy work upon the farm was haying. At that 



14 Memoirs of yoseph W. Pickett. 

season, Joseph always arranged to be at home, and, with 
his scythe and rake and pitchfork, and cheering laugh 
and persistent pluck, made "the best of hands/' as his 
father called him. 

He cherished through life the memory of an interest 
in religion when eight years of age. His father gath- 
ered the children around the family altar. His mother's 
devotional nature gave him a constant nurture of grace 
and goodness. At eighteen, when a student at Kings- 
ville Academy, a brother's sudden death deepened his 
serious convictions. During his first year in college, 
in a time of awakening, he sought the Lord through 
weeks of fasting and prayer, with strong crying and 
tears. The hills of Meadville were witness to his spir- 
itual struggles. When it pleased God to reveal his Son 
in him, and he saw the divine love in Jesus Christ, he 
acted with prompt decision, and on the following Sat- 
urday walked home, twenty four miles, to unite with the 
church of his fathers at the communion on the next 
day. An extract from his diary of this period shows 
his fervor and devotion : — 

After the five o'clock prayer-meeting this morning, Merrill and 
I proceeded to the forests, where for two hours we supplicate.! at 
the throne of grace, and received largely of the Holy Spirit. I 
was enabled through faith to behold Christ's kingdom, and saw 
the ancient prophets worshipping around the throne. Oh, the 
holy joy of believing! I desire to give up my body as the temple 
of the Holy Spirit. May God ever guide me in the strait and 
narrow path ! 

Many years later, he said of his habits of retirement 
for meditation and prayer : — 

I used to walk miles every day, going to some quiet retreat, 



Teaches in Academy. 15 

where I walked backward and forward, talking aloud to God, 
sometimes repeating portions of Scripture. I have worn paths 
in the deep woods so hard that the grass would not grow for 
months. Then I would kneel in prayer. I shall never forget 
those seasons. They sweetened my life, took out selfishness and 
passion, and put in sweetness and love, and a longing desire to do 
others good. 

Before leaving college, he had made an engagement 
to take charge of an academy at Taylorsville, Wilson 
County, Tenn., but after reaching home was prostrated 
with typhoid fever, and brought very low. Upon 
convalescence, he was urged to delay. But, feeling 
that strength would come as he went on his way, he 
left home the last of August. It was his first long 
journey, and his first travel by railroad. His health 
improved every day. From Louisville, he went by 
stage to his destination, thirty-seven miles east of Nash- 
ville. Here was his work for two years. The academy 
flourished in his hands. He aroused a generous ambi- 
tion among the students, and imparted to them his 
moral vigor and spiritual force. A neighboring hill 
of shady oaks and moss-covered rocks was his chosen 
resort for exercise and for meditation and prayer. 

In the summer vacation of 1856, he travelled into 
East Tennessee and North Carolina, alone, on horse- 
back ; making observations of the geology of those 
regions, and enjoying the wiidness and grandeur of the 
scenery. He visited Bon Air Springs, Roane County, 
and passed up Clinch River to Knoxville. From the 
Cumberland Mountains, he wrote, August 2d : — 

I stayed Wednesday night at a tavern kept by an Ohio man. I 
told him it was the last thing I expected, — to see a man leaving 



1 6 Memoirs of yoseph W. Pickett. 

Ohio for these barren mountains. He came for his health, he 
said. There are good reasons for its being healthy upon the 
mountains : a person can seldom get enough to eat to make him 
sick. I felt sorry for the landlady. She could get along, she said, 
if they had any privileges ; that there was no school, and only now 
and then preaching, Baptist and Methodist, but neither of the 
preachers could read. Of course, there are exceptions to this 
gloomy aspect of the region. Now and then I call upon a wealthy, 
intelligent farmer who is a perfect gentleman. The political fever 
runs high. It will be a tight match between Fillmore and Bu- 
chanan. I know little of Northern politics. 

From Knoxville, he went to Dandridge, and up 
French Broad River to the Warm Springs, N.C., six 
miles from the State line, a fashionable resort for the 
sons and daughters of fortune from the South. Riding 
on through Buncombe County, he ascended Mount 
Mitchell August 14th, and from its top wrote: — 

My highest desire is realized and my loftiest aspiration grati- 
fied, for 1 stand upon the far-famed mount, the loftiest summit of 
the Blue Ridge and highest point east of the Rocky Mountains. 
Having put on a thick overcoat which belongs to one of the men 
who are clearing the top of the mountain, I have ascended the 
rude observatory made of balsam-trees, and am gazing upon the 
scene. Nothing I have before witnessed will bear comparison 
with it. But it is cold. I must go to a fire the workmen have 
built under a ledge of rock. . . . This is comfortable ; and I must 
tell you of my adventures. Yesterday, it rained most of the fore- 
noon ; dark clouds hung around the mountains. At dinner, I saw 
some speckled trout the boys had caught. I remembered the 
stories father had told me, and determined to go fishing. The 
boys got bait. We went up the mountain about two miles by the 
side of a dashing, foaming stream, passing high laurel and ivy 
bushes that were growing in luxuriance, and threw in our hooks. 
I watched the boy's motion until I saw the plan, and then com- 



Mountain Experiences. ij 

menced. I let my hook float along the stream, when up came a 
trout and snapped it. I drew him out. Leaping along the rocks, 
I let my hook dance into the deep holes, when up came another 
fellow, which I ousted. It was the greatest sport at fishing I ever 
had. I caught five, the boy three. He said it was the first time 
he was ever beaten. 

This morning, about seven, with a son of my host, I started up 
the mountain on foot. We travelled on and on. I made him puff 
and blow. We reached here between one and two o'clock this 
afternoon, after ten miles of "up-hill business." My host and 
several hands are at work here, building a sleeping-room. I am 
going to see the sun and moon rise and set. I can stand it to 
stay under the rocks without cover, if these mountaineers can. So 
good-night. 

Morning, August 15. — I slept most of the night finely. We 
had a large fire built, which we were obliged to replenish often, as 
the fir-wood is poor to keep fire. My thermometer stood at 45 ° 
this morning. The sun set behind a cloud last night, but its 
rising this morning was glorious. The fog resembles vast lakes, 
above which the mountain summits rear their heads like islands. 

His return to Middle Tennessee was by another 
route, through Jackson, Macon, and Cherokee Coun- 
ties, N.C., and Monroe County, Tenn. Passing over the 
ancient domain of the Cherokee Indians, he entered a 
lonely valley, some thirty miles wide, with the ragged 
and rocky crags of the Blue Ridge on one side and 
the Smoky Mountains on the other. Overwhelmed at 
times by the towering, precipitous grandeur of the 
former, he found a fascination and charm in the soft 
and restful splendor of the latter. It was long an 
image in his mind of "the valley of blessing." On one 
side towered the holy law; on the other, the divine love 
seemed diffused abroad. 



1 8 Memoirs of Joseph W. Pickett. 

On the fifteenth of September, he resumed his work 
at the academy, with an increased number of pupils and 
his brother Cyrus as assistant. He closed his labors 
there July 10, 1857, with grateful assurances of esteem 
from his pupils, and with promises of a prayerful re- 
membrance of them on his part. Five of his pupils 
accompanied him home, to be educated at Alleghany 
College. Three remained North, and a few years later 
joined the army of the Union. One was first lieuten- 
ant of a college company raised at Meadville ; assistant 
adjutant-general at the battle of Drahesville, December 
20, 1 86 1 ; fought bravely on the Peninsula and before 
Richmond, and died from exhaustion. The others 
raised a company of cavalry, of which one was captain 
and the other first lieutenant. 

Having saved twelve hundred and fifty dollars from 
his earnings in teaching, Mr. Pickett was enabled to 
pursue a cherished plan of study at Yale College, where 
he joined the Senior class, and graduated in 1858. He 
greatly prized the opportunities for culture afforded 
him at New Haven. Though not in firm health, he 
pursued his studies vigorously, and made more broad 
and solid his foundations for usefulness. His heart 
was deeply enlisted in the revival of religion which that 
year blessed the college. In Professor Goodrich, he 
recognized a model man. 

In the fall of 1858, he entered the Theological Semi- 
nary at Andover, Mass., and pursued the full course of 
study for three years with industry and zeal. Not neg- 
lecting opportunities of usefulness or the culture of the 



At Andovcr. 19 

heart, he labored frequently in religious meetings and 
Bible classes, and, amid the walks and woods of Ando- 
ver, kept up his habits of communion with nature and 
of devout meditation. During his first winter there, 
he wrote : — 

Our oceanic winds and rain-storms are a conglomeration of hail, 
sleet, and snow, which loads the trees : but, let it come pleasant 
when they are thus adorned, and it is difficult to conceive of any- 
thing more beautiful. A week since, a damp, frosty snow fell 
upon the trees during the night and arranged itself in crystals, so 
that the morning revealed as glorious a spectacle as one could 
imagine. As we passed between the elms that interweave their 
branches above our walks, covered with millions of crystals, I 
remarked to my classmate that never did royal monarch walk 
beneath a more gorgeous canopy. 

During the summer vacation of 1859, ^ e labored 
under the Vermont Home Missionary Society at North 
Hyde Park and Eden, Lamoille County, but overtaxed 
himself, and was laid aside by sickness. He recovered 
so as to return to the seminary, but was again pros- 
trated for several weeks. Upon regaining his health, 
such was his ardor and devotion that he soon made up 
all he had lost in his prescribed studies. 



CHAPTER II. 

MINISTRY AT WENTWORTH, N.H., AND MOUNT PLEASANT, 

IOWA. 

^pOWARD the close of his seminary course, he was 
invited to return to North Hyde Park, being " the 
one that always came to mind as the minister they 
needed." But his steps were directed to Wentworth, 
Grafton County, N.H., where he found a happy field of 
labor for two years, among an intelligent and a refined 
people, who appreciated the devotion and kindling fervor 
of his ministry, and invited him to become their pastor. 
A work of grace prevailed during much of the time. 
Eighteen were added to the church by profession, and 
twelve by letter. He was ordained an Evangelist at 
Bristol, N.H., January 2, 1862, in company with a class- 
mate, Rev. C. F. Abbott. The sermon was preached by 
Cyrus W. Wallace, D.D., and the ordaining prayer 
offered by Rev. Liba Conant. A few months after- 
ward, April 10, he was united in marriage at West 
Williamsfield, Ohio, with Miss Mary Jane, daughter of 
Rev. George and Ann J. (Marvin) Roberts, a lady of 
gentle ways and sunny disposition, inheriting the faith 
and devotion of her lamented father, whose praise is in 
the churches of North-eastern Ohio to this day. He 
died May 7, 1857. 

At Wentworth, Mr. Pickett's enjoyment *of nature 



"Picket? s Hill." 21 

was intense. The strength of the hills was his delight. 
A short distance from his home is a lofty hill, covered 
with evergreens and maples, and affording a fine pros- 
pect. Thither he resorted almost daily, book in hand, 
to read and study and pray. There he poured out his 
heart for the country, — it was at the commencement of 
the Rebellion, — and revolved the questions of going to 
the war as a private soldier or chaplain, of entering 
the foreign missionary field, or going to the Far West, 
or remaining in New England. The hill was soon 
called " Pickett's Hill," and still retains the name. He 
visited it whenever in after years he went to Went- 
worth. In 1861 and in 1862, he made a tour to the 
White Mountains, and again, at a later day, with his 
two boys. 

To leave this delightful region and his pleasant asso- 
ciations with the Church cost him no little struggle. 
But a voice seemed to say: " Other fields have been 
appointed you. Up, and away to your life-work!" The 
claims of Portland, Oregon, and of fields in Nebraska 
and Missouri, and the wants of Iowa, were pressed 
upon his attention. On leaving, the Church expressed 
their appreciation of him as u a diligent and faithful 
laborer, spiritually-minded, abounding in prayers, and 
a ready and able speaker, rightly divining the Word." 
He had found the Church weak : he left it strong. His 
heart often reverted to this field. " We long for the 
hills," he wrote. "I want the mayflowers every spring, 
and a leaf from the old maple-tree that shaded my 
window, and something from ' Pickett's Hill ' every 



22 Memoirs of yoseph W. Pickett. 

autumn." , After removing to Colorado, he wrote : 
" Our home faces Pike's Peak and glorious mountain 
scenery. But its vast and varied grandeur is not yet 
so precious to me as the sweet beauty of New Hamp- 
shire's hills, and her rushing watercourses." 

During the summer of 1863, he visited the West to 
see its condition and wants, and look at fields that were 
calling for laborers. He spent several weeks at Coun- 
cil Bluffs and Nebraska City, and was urged by a little 
band of struggling Christians in each place to remain 
with them. In Nebraska City, he preached a vigorous 
discourse on the day of National Thanksgiving for the 
victories at Vicksburg and Gettysburg, that was cheer- 
ing to the friends of the country in that community, 
where a powerful secession element had existed from 
the beginning of the war. 

On the 1 2th of August, he visited Mount Pleasant, 
Henry County, Iowa. The opportunity of usefulness 
there, with the cordial welcome given him, seemed a 
divine call to that field. Here he spent the next six 
years, laboring with fervor and diligence, carrying the 
gospel into destitute neighborhoods, helping the schools, 
promoting the cause of temperance, addressing public 
meetings in each township in the county for the Bible 
Society, of which he was president, enlisting in every 
effort for the improvement of society, and raising the 
church from dependence upon the Missionary Society 
to self-support. 

Of free and cordial manners, he won men to him. 
He had remarkable facility and despatch in visiting 



At Mt. Pleasant. 23 

from house to house, and had a word in season for 
every person, from the oldest to the youngest. No 
one was too humble for his care. In highways and by- 
ways, he sought out the wandering. His genial spirit, 
his untiring and ungrudging labors, made for him a 
host of friends outside his congregation. In his favor- 
ite work of evangelism among outlying districts, he 
was swift of foot, often performing feats of pedestrian- 
ism ; walking long distances to preaching stations, and 
allowing neither extreme heat nor severe cold nor 
muddy roads nor storms nor swollen streams to detain 
him from appointments. On one occasion, in winter, 
finding the ice gone on which he expected to cross a 
creek, he stripped off his lower clothing, and "waded 
in." He got safely over, dressed himself, went on his 
way, and fulfilled his appointment. He had preached 
that morning in Mount Pleasant. He returned there 
on a hand-car, working his passage part of the way, and 
preached again at night. He organized churches at 
Rome and Hickory Grove, — one eight miles west, and 
the other five miles north, of Mount Pleasant. Review- 
ing his work with the latter Church, at the dedication 
of their house of worship, in 1870, he wrote : — 

As I looked upon the beautiful church, crowded with people, my 
heart was filled with gratitude at the thought of what God has 
wrought. Less than three years since, the church was organized 
with fear and trembling in a small, wretched, old school-house, 
where I had preached for some months, without even a desk to 
lay my Bible on. Now a membership of fifty earnest Christians 
gathered from all classes is making its influence felt through the 
region. It procured aid from the Congregational Union to the 



24 Memoirs of Joseph W. Pickett. 

amount of two hundred dollars, but has not asked a cent from the 
Home Missionary Society, and is free from debt. 

In July and August, 1864, he visited the scenes of 
the war in Tennessee and Georgia, at the call of the 
Christian Commission, to carry the ministry of religion 
among the sick and wounded soldiers. The following 
extracts are from his letters while in that service : — 

July 12, 1864. — At Louisville, everything is changed from what 
it was seven years ago. Military officers now occupy the place of 
the Southern chivalry. Troops were marching here and there 
through the city, some hurrying to the front, others returning. 
Thursday we started for Nashville. Soldiers with muskets and 
bayonets stood at the doors of the cars. Nine years ago, I had 
gone in a stage over this route. War has changed the appearance 
of the country ; but few crops are being raised, and these very 
poor. At Munfordsville, I saw the first rebel works. Long lines 
of rifle-pits had been constructed, and other fortifications, all 
now deserted. Here a vast rebel army flushed with hope once 
confronted us. Onward to the South, mile upon mile, we moved, 
past rebel works which are now in our hands. I never realized 
before how much we have done toward putting down the Rebel- 
lion. We came in sight of the Cumberland River, on whose banks 
I once spent so many happy days ; but now everything speaks of 
desolation. Bristling bayonets guard the whole way. We found 
Nashville full to overflowing of military men. The Christian 
Commission occupy a large house in the city, owned by a rebel, 
who had run away with his family. He left the most of his furni- 
ture, which was convenient for us. On the second floor, in the 
hall was a nice baby-carriage. The nest was there, but the birdie 
had flown. I hope the little one will not be nursed into a rebel. 

In the morning, I rose at daylight, found it raining; and in the 
rain, far up and down the street, was a cavalry regiment. I 
walked out to see them, and asked, " What regiment is this ? " 
" Fifth Iowa Cavalry," said they. " Where are you bound ? " 



Work at the South. 25 

"We do not know." They had started from camp at midnight, 
to leave at two o'clock in the morning ; but for some reason did not 
go. I was glad to find a regiment from our State, and went 
around among them. 

After breakfast, we filled our haversacks with books, papers, 
and writing material, and started for Cumberland Hospital, about 
one mile out of the city. Here are several hundred large tents, 
with over three thousand sick and wounded in rows of low beds. 
Coming to one of the tents, I would say, as cheerfully as I could, 
" Good-morning, soldiers ! How do you all do ? " They would 
turn their pale, ghastly faces with a questioning look. " I have 
come to cheer you," said I. " Have brought you books and papers 
from home. The loved ones think of you, and pray for you." 
Then you ought to have seen the smile and the welcome, as from 
tent to tent I distributed my papers, and told the dear boys of 
home. I found all kinds of wounds. Many were wounded in the 
head; some, in the eye; some, in the back, so that they had to lie 
on their faces ; some with legs off ; some with arms off. I ask, 
"Where were you wounded?" Many reply, "At Kenesaw Moun- 
tain." Nearly half of the present wounded are from that gory field. 
I am tired of the very name. I entered one tent, and said, " You 
do not get discouraged, do you?" "Oh, no!" said one: "we do 
not allow any blues here. It will do no good." I looked at him. 
There he lay, with his leg amputated above the knee ! I thought, 
" That is courage, which would do well for faint hearts at home." 

We left Nashville on a hospital train, full of beds which lay on 
boards adapted to the purpose. It looked like work to see a 
long train of cars pushing to the front, to be -filled with wounded 
and dying men. At every little bridge was a stockade, where we 
threw out papers to men eager to read. At Tullahoma, I held two 
services on the Sabbath in the wards of the hospital. Some were 
so sick I did not dare to be long. 

We found the road full of wild interest, — watched for bush- 
whackers, saw three or four places where trains had been thrown 
off a few days before by. torpedoes. At one place, the cars ran 
into one another two weeks ago, the passenger train full of 



26 Memoirs of Joseph IV. Pickett. 

wounded men. A large number were killed, and others worse 
wounded. 

At Stevenson, Ala., we went to the Soldiers' Home, formerly 
"Alabama House," where Jeff. Davis made his speech. I never 
realized the blessings of home so much as when we went to our 
miserable bed. In the morning, we visited a colored school. The 
children and grown girls and boys sat on low, narrow seats, in 
a leaky house, without a floor, with bare feet and dresses drag- 
gling in water and mud. The teacher was from Wisconsin, and 
seemed discouraged. She said that the people were abused. We 
heard a class read that showed remarkable aptitude. 

Here we fell in with a quartermaster who proved to be an old 
acquaintance, Captain Warren, of Jackson County, who procured 
horses for us \ and we rode far out beyond the pickets, but saw 
nothing to frighten us, only dead horses and mules. Alone, I 
ascended a mountain, two miles to the summit, where I got a 
splendid view of the village, with its fortifications and surrounding 
mountains. 

Chattanooga, Tenn., July 15. — From Stevenson to this point, 
the country is mountainous ; stockades, only a short distance 
apart, over the whole route. We passed beneath the frowning 
cliffs which, rising perpendicular from the river, mark the first 
bench of Lookout Mountain. The town is full of fortifications, 
soldiers, black and white ; while Lookout Mountain looms above 
us, full of native as well as historic grandeur. Mission Ridge, in 
full view, stretches about two miles away to the south of us, while 
the broad Tennessee hugs the northern side. 

I am sad and sick at heart. It seems almost wrong to look 
toward my own sweet home and think how soon I am to enjoy it, 
when so many are suffering and in agony, with no hope of seeing 
loved ones again. I do not know whether it is best to tell you of 
all I have seen and heard to-day; yet perhaps you can endure a 
few words as well as I could the whole day. But what is this to 
all the poor soldiers suffer? I was assigned to Hospital No. 1, 
where are the worst cases of wounds. Men who were brought 



Sufferings of Soldiers. 27 

from the battle on cars, and could not be moved farther, were left 
at this, the nearest hospital. Nearly all the wounded had legs off 
above the knee. They lay in the oppressive heat, with a bandage 
on the limb, fanning, to keep the swarms of flies off. Here, a 
nurse was washing a limb which looked like raw, spoiled meat. 
In one tent, a young man's face was literally black with flies. 
They had crawled between his lips. I took a fan and brushed 
them away, and talked with him. I asked him where he was 
from. How strange it sounded ! "Ashtabula County, Ohio ; from 
Dorset." Was attending Kingsville Academy when he enlisted. 
He said, " I wish I was back again." And well he might, for he 
would probably live but a few days. 

In one of the long buildings I entered, there lay a poor fellow 
struggling in awful agony. His amputated limb had become so 
bad that they reamputated it a few hours before, and now he was 
dying. Opposite, the nurse was dressing the leg of a noble- 
looking fellow whose limb had been amputated near the hip, pick- 
ing off decayed matter with a pair of forceps. It was a terrible 
sight. He groaned each time they touched it, and pleaded with 
them not to be so harsh. The flesh had decayed over the end of 
the limb, and been removed, leaving great holes. After they were 
through, " Hand me the glass," he said ; and, reaching down, 
held it so as to reflect the end of the limb, and asked: "Doctor, 
you said it looked better. Are those deep, black holes better ? I 
cannot see it." Poor fellow ! The doctor says the chances are 
against him. On farther was a man nearly gone, who mingled 
with others' groans the singing of Psalms. I passed on to some 
quiet sufferers, and said, "Is not this a hard place for you?" 
" Oh, yes," they said. "It is as much," said I, "as a well man 
can endure." I gave them some fresh papers, and they went to 
reading. 

The field agent wanted me to preach last night. I had thought 
my day's work through, and told him I was too tired. He was 
kind, and said he would go ; but he was worn down, and I went. 
There were about one hundred and fifty present, all soldiers. 

July 19. — Have been busy as a bee. Sent three hundred dol- 
lars yesterday from various sick soldiers to their homes by 



28 % Memoirs of Joseph W. Pickett. 

express. I have much to encourage and interest me. Many poor 
sufferers are inquiring the way of salvation. Pray for a blessing 
upon my labors. What a sweet thought, — that in the resurrec- 
tion some may rise up from the army of the Cumberland whom I 
have benefited ! 

A day or two ago, as I entered one of the hospital buildings, I 
saw a man writhing in extreme pain, shot through both hips, and 
the pain darting down his limbs. I asked: "How do you bear 
your sufferings to-day ? That is hard, is it not ? " " Oh," says he, 
"the hardest of all is that I have thrown my life away. I have 
sacrificed all for nothing. It will do no good. We shall never 
succeed." I was surprised; had never heard a soldier talk so 
before. " Oh, no ! It will be all for the best," I said. I asked 
him where he was from. Found he was a rebel, from Alabama, 
a noble-looking fellow, and a Christian. He seemed to have no 
hope for the Confederacy; was wounded as they fell back from 
Kenesaw Mountain; said God was bringing all this on us for our 
sins, and that we ought to be a united nation. Poor boy ! I gave 
him something to read, and left him. Many are dying. I stop at 
the operating-room every day. They give chloroform, and then 
cut away at the old wound, taking out gangrene. You could not 
bear to look on. 

On the 22d of July, he made the ascent of Lookout 
Mountain, starting out early in the morning, with 
breakfast in his pocket, The next clay, he proceeded 
to the front on a hospital train, and spent the following 
two weeks with the army then laying siege to Atlanta. 

In the Field, three miles from Atlanta, Ga., July 26, 1864. — 
From Vining's, at the end of the railroad, we got a ride in the am- 
bulances which had come with loads of wounded men. Some had 
died on the way. After riding two miles in a choking, blinding 
dust, we stopped at the Chattahooche, for the teamsters to dine. 
The mules were much exhausted. After a slow ride of five or six 
miles on this side of the river, we came to the hospital of the 



"Excitement of Danger." 29 

Twentieth Army Corps, where we were cordially received. It 
consists of tents in the woods. All seemed clean. The patients 
lie on the ground. A gentle stream murmured near, in which 
some were bathing. We slept on the ground, amid the heavy 
boom of the siege-guns and the groans of the dying. 

This morning, I rose early, visited some wounded rebels, and 
became acquainted with the medical director of the Fifteenth 
Corps, to which I was assigned. We started with him about ten 
o'clock, after helping to load the ambulances with wounded men 
who were going North. Proceeding a mile, we saw where Hooker 
had his terrible but short fight. Many new graves attested the 
severity of the struggle. Many Ohio boys were marked on the 
head-boards. The surgeon got off his horse, put on our baggage 
of heavy blankets, knapsacks, and canteens, and led the horse. 
We went to the front of our line, where I was tinder fire for the 
first time. A shell from a rebel battery burst in the air above us, 
left a little white cloud of smoke, and passed away. The sharp- 
shooters were but a little beyond. As we passed on, one was 
brought along on a stretcher wounded. You cannot imagine what 
strange exhilaration I felt in the excitement of a little danger, — 
the novelty, the booming cannon, the soldiers around us ; some 
firing at long intervals ; one reading a history of America, lying 
behind the breastworks. On we came to the eastward, winding 
here and there, to General O. O. Howard's head-quarters, where 
we now are with his chief commissary, Colonel David Remick, — 
where we have all, and abound. The cannon roar out on the 
night air. We expect a move to-morrow. May God prosper the 
right ! We had a precious interview with General Howard this 
afternoon. He is a noble, lovely man. 

July 28. — Yesterday, General Sherman commenced a flank 
movement toward our right, or to the west of Atlanta. The sev- 
eral corps to the east of us broke camp about midnight, a part 
reaching here soon after daylight. And of all the sights ! Woods, 
roads, fields, far and near, full of soldiers, halted and preparing 
breakfast ; muskets stacked, little fires built to prepare coffee and 
fry meat, each soldier carrying his little iron coffee-cup and spider. 



30 Memoirs of Joseph IV. Pickett. 

The rail fences were soon used up, and soldiers busy eating pork 
and hard-tack. I found the Sixth and Twenty-fifth Iowa. A large 
number of Mount Pleasant boys gathered around me. I wrote 
ten letters for soldiers this morning. I wrote for one poor rebel 
boy, who was shot through the lungs. How he wept as he sent 
word to his father ! He said his mother could not stand it. He 
was from Southern Alabama. Wagons were moving steadily all 
day. I never realized how much work it is to move an army. 
The troops formerly on the left are forming on the right. Heavy 
cannonading all along the line. Night and day, at short intervals, 
our ears are greeted with the heavy peals. 

July 30. — A battle was raging on our right at the time of the 
cannonading. The Fifteenth Corps had been ordered to form on 
the right of the Sixteenth, and had just reached their position and 
thrown down a few logs, when the rebels were seen coming up 
within a few rods, in dense woods. Our men were ordered to fall 
behind these slight works and fire. This was the commencement 
of a fierce engagement of several hours, when the enemy with- 
drew, not having once reached our lines. 

Yesterday morning, Colonel Remick asked us if we would not 
like to ride along the lines. As we had been working hard, we 
concluded to have a little rest. The colonel took his orderly to 
wait on us and the horses. We took a westerly direction, toward 
our right. The skirmishers were cracking away. Pop, pop, went 
the guns, and boomed the heavy cannon. We dismounted several 
times, and went up to the breastworks. We could see the rebel 
works and men walking over them. 

Our forces were still passing to the right. Regiment after regi- 
ment blocked the way. There was no display. Generals walked 
their horses, color-bearers had their flags furled. The men kept 
no regular step, no music, but filed along the road, as full as it 
could be packed for miles. It was a grand spectacle. Those 
scar-worn veterans meant work. Some looked weary under their 
heavy knapsacks, but all marched on. We were obliged to take 
to the woods for a long distance in passing them, and at length 



Gen. Corse and Gen. Sherman. 31 

found the quarters of Brigadier-General Corse, of Burlington, 
who commands a division of the Sixteenth Corps. He took us to 
his works, showed his mounted cannon, and Atlanta through his 
glass. I saw the rebels standing thick on their works, about 
a mile away. We then went on to the Fifteenth Corps and to 
the battle-field, a few rods distant. It was horrible. The rebels 
had not been buried at this point, and lay as they fell. Nearest 
our works was a rebel captain, cold in death, pierced with many 
bullets. Just back of him lay his men. All had their clothes 
on, clotted with blood. Some were wounded in. the head. Their 
clotted hair and ghastly faces presented a horrible appearance. 
We walked on. It was the same, — some on their faces, some 
on their backs. At one oak-tree, which was riddled w T ith balls, 
lay two dead rebels side by side. All of them were swarming 
with flies. We left the sickening sight, impressed more than 
ever with the horrors of war. I never saw more accurate firing. 
Trees at about the height of four feet were completely riddled. 

We now began to return. Passed the head-quarters of General 
Thomas. Saw him looking through his glass at the enemy's 
works. Also passed the head-quarters of General Sherman. 
Saw him reading a newspaper. We got home in a drenching 
rain at 5 P.M., having rode along a greater portion of the line 
and back again, some twenty miles. 

August 2. — Yesterday, I visited the hospitals. The soldiers 
seemed very glad to see me. I greet them with a smile, and they 
almost all smile back again. They were being moved : poor, pale, 
legless, and armless men, without a murmur, were lifted into am- 
bulances, to be jolted over these rough roads in the woods. We 
are still shifting our left or east wing to the right, wishing, by slow 
approaches, to reach the railroad south-west of town. Yesterday, 
Schofield, of the Twenty-third Corps, commenced to swing his 
command ten or twelve miles to our right wing. This left our 
hospitals exposed to the enemy. We were stopping in a house 
about one mile back of our fortifications. Fearing the enemy 
might flank us, passing round our left wing, we ran a line of 



32 Memoirs of yoseph W. Pickett. 

breastworks nearly north and south along the east side of the 
Fourth Corps. This line struck the centre of our house. Men 
came in squads, with shovels and picks and axes, and began such 
a clamor. It was a novel sight to see them tear down the house. 
They looked like ants running to and fro with boards and joists. 
Soon it was all down, — carried away to make breastworks. The 
clatter of axes was heard, cutting down trees. The rebels can 
now roam where I have labored in the hospitals, nearly a mile east 
of these works. I am safe in the colonel's tent, with the Fourth 
Corps, formerly Howard's, now Stanley's, between me and harm. 
Cannot do much to-day, everything is so stirred up. 

Chattanooga, Tenn., August 10, 1864. — Back in Tennessee. 
How differently I look upon everything now ! The movements of 
single regiments seem a small matter, and military movements 
here awaken but little interest. 

I held service at Marietta, Ga., on the Sabbath, in one of the 
hospitals : preached or talked in three of the wards. The inmates 
are continually changing, whole trains going North ; but from the 
fountain of sorrow and death comes a never-failing stream, which 
fills up their number day after day. A tide of lusty life passes to 
the front : it surges back, shattered, broken, blood-stained. 

Monday, 8. — I took a few crackers for breakfast, and started to 
ascend Kenesaw Mountain. Several members of the Commission 
had been anxious to go, but were dissuaded on account of gueril- 
las. I thought the risk to me alone would be small, as I trusted 
to the quickness of my eye to see an enemy before he saw me. 
The town was in commotion that morning. An attack was ex- 
pected from Wheeler's cavalry. Spies, it was said, had entered 
the city. The principal streets were barricaded, and the guards 
and pickets ordered to arrest every stranger in the streets. While 
in the suburbs, a lieutenant sent one of his squad for me ; but he 
found me " all right," and I went on to the picket lines, but coukf 
not go another step. Orders were stringent to pass no man what- 
ever. So I went back to the provost-marshal. Men were being 
marched in there by the scores. Among them, one of our Chris- 



Back to Mt. Pleasant. 33 

tian Commission men, who had charge of the rooms, came in with 
a bayonet behind him. I roared, as he liked to get the laugh on 
others, and had been afraid to go to Kenesaw, though starting 
twice. He said to me, " Are you caught, too ? " " Oh, no ! These 
guards can tell an honest man," I answered. I then asked the 
marshal for a pass, which he gave immediately. 

I left, passed the pickets, and was soon in the land of desola- 
tion, silence, and death. Along the way were blackened ruins, 
stripped fruit-trees, corn-fields cut up, not a pig, hen, goose, or 
chicken. Leaving the main road, where guerillas would waylay a 
traveller, I plunged into the dark forests at the mountain's base. 
I found some lovely spots. In one place, sw r eet odors filled the 
air. The woods were filled with flowers, several varieties of which 
I picked, and laid away in my book for a certain lady. I started 
straight up the rugged side of the mountain ; after some fatigue, 
reached the summit, where were stationed a guard of eight men. 
Had a beautiful view, somewhat like that at Vining's ; the cannon 
smoke of Atlanta visible, and the reverberations fell upon the ear. 
Almost at my feet lay the lovely Marietta, at this distance reveal- 
ing few of the desolations of war. South-east was Stone Moun- 
tain, while to the north-east my own loved Blue Ridge swept 
along in rugged grandeur. Lookout, peering down upon a deso- 
lated land, seemed proud to be delivered from foreign hands, and 
to give up its pure air and gushing fountains to recuperate the 
strength of the maimed heroes of liberty. The mountain-top 
where I stood was scarred and shattered. I followed the line of 
rebel breastworks for a mile and a half to the west, picked up 
cannon-balls, and wished I could carry them away; examined 
exploded shells, and where they had embedded themselves in the 
solid oak ; saw where the battle raged hottest, and came down. 
Got back safely, and started at 2 P.M. for this place, where we 
arrived at ten o'clock next morning. 

Returning from his labors for the soldiers, Mr. 
Pickett prosecuted his ministry at Mount Pleasant 
with unflagging assiduity and zeal. In the midst of 



34 Memoirs of "Joseph W. Pickett. 

his usefulness, his life was darkened by a great sorrow, 
— the sickness of his wife, and her death, June 25, 
1868, leaving two little boys, John and George, to cling 
the more closely to their father's guiding hand. 

A year later, he was called to take the superin- 
tendence of Home Missions for Southern Iowa. The 
devotion and success of his ministry had become well 
known, and his zeal in evangelism marked him as pecul- 
iarly fitted for that office. At the same time, he loved 
pastoral work, and the studies incumbent on one who 
would feed his people with knowledge and understand- 
ing; and, strong in the affections of his people, the 
thought of giving up these relations, and his quiet 
home and the immediate care of his children, was un- 
welcome, and he demurred. Nothing moved him but 
the possibilities of very great usefulness, of which the 
Rev. Julius A. Reed confidently told him. He set 
apart a day of fasting and prayer to consider the ques- 
tion and ask divine guidance : it was a day of sacred 
memory, just one year after his wife's death. On the 
next day, June 26, 1869, he signified his acceptance of 
the appointment, and wrote : — 

I will cheerfully give up everything that would interfere with 
this work, feeling that Christ can be more to me than my loved 
people, that he can give me a sweeter rest than that of home, and 
that he will provide for the intellectual development of those who 
walk in the path of duty. 

He at once provided a good home for his children at 
Mount Pleasant, and removed his residence to Des 
Moines, to be near the centre of his field. 



CHAPTER III. 

SUPERIXTEXDEXT OF HOME MISSIONS IN SOUTHERN IOWA. 

>npHE operations of the American Home. Missionary 
Society in Iowa were commenced in 1836, three 
years after a narrow strip of its territory, " The Black 
Hawk Purchase," was opened to settlement. Since 
that period, the society has aided in planting the 
gospel and in sustaining new and feeble congregations 
in every portion of the State. All the Presbyterian 
churches in Iowa, formerly called " Xew School," and 
all the Congregational churches, save those at Den- 
mark, Grinnell, Tabor, Keokuk, and Farragut, were 
assisted by this society in their infancy, and many of 
them for a series of years. In this work, the society 
has expended more than six hundred thousand dollars. 
Rev. Asa Turner, who still survives at more than four- 
score to witness the fruits of his sacrifices and toils, 
was the first agent. It was at his call that a band of 
eleven ministers came to the Territory from the Theo- 
logical Institution at Anclover, Mass., of the class of 
1843. To him succeeded Rev. Julius A. Reed, in 1845, 
and Rev. Jesse Guernsey, in 1858. In 1862, the field 
was divided into Northern and Southern Iowa, Mr. 
Guernsey holding the former and Mr, Reed taking 
charge of the latter. In November, 1864, Rev. Reuben 
Gaylord was called to the supervision of Western Iowa, 



36 Memoirs of Joseph W. Pickett. 

in conjunction with Nebraska. In addition to Mr. 
Reed's district, Mr. Pickett's superintendency covered 
the part of Iowa that had been under Mr. Gaylord. 
He found the field full of promise. The three lines 
of railway that passed through it from the Mississippi 
to the Missouri were bringing multitudes to make 
homes there. New towns were springing up. The 
increase of population was large, especially in South- 
western Iowa. He saw it to be a critical time for that 
fair and fertile region, and he threw himself into the 
work of establishing Christian institutions in the rising 
communities. At an early period of these labors, he 
wrote : — 

As in loneliness and weariness I roam these rolling prairies, I 
foresee some of the wonderful beauty and glory that twenty years 
will unfold. Christian homes, with waving grain, teeming or- 
chards, and groves from which rise church-spires, will then cover 
these now untrodden solitudes. In imagination, I hear the tramp 
of the coming millions who are to find homes here in the near 
future, and my ardor is kindled and my footsteps quickened as I 
listen to the command, — 

" Prepare ye the way of the Lord : 
Make straight in the desert a highway for our God." 

For nine years, he prosecuted his work with unflag- 
ging zeal and devotion, in season and out of season, 
usually preaching daily during the winter months, and 
frequently visiting every family in new towns. 

It is gratifying to know, he said, that we have been able to move 
with this moving tide of population, and to plant in new towns and 
on the broad prairies the faith and order of the Pilgrims. Yet our 
work is scarcely begun. We need churches with a fervid enthusi- 



Home Missionary Work. 37 

asm for the truth as it is in Jesus, and many more young ministers 
with glowing hearts who will know no hardships and feel no bur- 
dens, and who will move among this heterogeneous population 
with a spirit so Christ-like as to win a way into every humble 
cabin, whether Protestant, Catholic, or infidel, and diffuse an at- 
mosphere of love that will draw all hearts. I am resolved to give 
all I have to enthrone Christ in this lovely State ; and my greatest 
joy is to welcome others to the fellowship of, this labor and sacri- 
fice. I have foregone the enjoyments of home and family for the 
sole purpose of giving myself exclusively to the work. It is my 
habit to visit the public schools as far as possible. Passing 
through the rooms with the principal, I have been invited to 
make short addresses, so that I have often made half a dozen 
talks on methods of study and proper preparation for life's work, 
thus preparing the way for religious truth at church service. I 
have frequently held children's meetings at the close of day- 
schools, having sometimes overflowing houses. When on the 
held, I have never been absent from a Sunday-school, and inva- 
riably have made brief addresses. 

He gave his time to weak and pastorless churches, 
and especially to new towns that afforded an opening 
for the planting of churches. At Carroll, a town of five 
hundred inhabitants, he held an eight days' meeting, 
and visited the whole town, Catholics and all. Some 
prominent citizens were converted, and united with the 
church. Stopping one evening at Mondamin, a town 
of a few hundred inhabitants on the Council Bluffs and 
Sioux City road, he learned that they had no preach- 
ing. Notice of a meeting that evening was circulated. 
A crowded house awaited him ; and, though but five 
hours in the place, a movement was begun that re- 
sulted in the formation of a church. In his first visit 
to Grand River, Adair County, after riding twelve 



38 Memoirs of Joseph W. Pickett. 

miles from Stuart in a farmer's wagon, he walked six 
miles, much of the way through heavy snow-drifts, was 
hungry and faint, got lost, and was almost frozen 
before reaching a shelter. One starry, winter's night, 
he reached Cromwell, then a railroad terminus, about 
midnight, and, kneeling upon the frosty ground, asked 
God to reveal to him his work there. When he first 
passed through Creston, the site contained nothing but 
a calf-pen. Soon it became a division station, and the 
church he planted gained a leading position. At Anita, 
he visited on foot all the region for miles around, and 
gathered members from six denominations into church 
fellowship. He saw there afterward one of the most 
beautiful houses of w r orship in the State. 

In prosecuting his work, he affiliated with Christians 
of every name, not preferring one before another, doing 
nothing by partiality, seeking comity and peace with 
all. Reporting, 1876, the organization of six churches, 
he said : — 

The large numbers uniting in forming these churches reveal the 
approach of that day long anticipated and prayed for, when Chris- 
tians in our smaller towns, laying aside denominational differ- 
ences, will come together on a common platform of evangelical 
faith. The various denominations united with the utmost har- 
mony, and work in perfect accord. Houses of worship are reared, 
and preaching is maintained easily, and religion is honored in this 
unity of the body of Christ. Our work seems clearly denned, to 
offer our aid to communities that wish to unite on this common 
platform. We bid God-speed to all who wish to join in any other 
church polity ; but it is believed that as many churches as can be 
cared for will choose to fashion their faith and order after the 
simplicity of our Congregational brotherhood. 



The " Centennial. " 39 

I must mention one fact, not boastfully, but gratefully, in token 
of the good hand of my God upon me, which perhaps has not 
happened to another agent of the society occupying so hard a 
field for so long a time. In seven years of labor, I have never 
missed an appointment. Trains preceding or succeeding me 
have broken down, storms have blocked travel, bridges have been 
washed away; and, although hundreds of appointments have been 
made in different parts of the State, sometimes for weeks before- 
hand, Providence has so arranged that nothing has interfered 
with my original plans. 

I have never preached a " collection sermon " since I have been 
in the work : not but it might have been profitable at times ; but I 
wished to present spiritual truth, and have left this special duty 
to pastors. The result has been satisfactory. Contributions on 
my held to home missions have increased. 

His heart throbbed deeply with the memories of the 
nation's centennial, in 1876. He visited Philadelphia 
with his sons, and heard the bell announce at midnight 
the opening of a new century. In the presence of the 
nations there represented, and among the exhibits of 
the world's advancement, the summons seemed to come 
to him louder than ever to guard and strengthen on his 
own field the moral principles and spiritual forces that 
underlie the peculiar civilization of America. In 1877, 
he wrote : — 

One church has died of the dry rot of secret society and general 
worldliness. Proper faith and courage in the membership would 
have saved it. It must be regarded as a serious loss to the de- 
nomination and to the community. But, when a church resolves 
to die, I know of no way but to let it do so. It is not Congrega- 
tional to prop up with outside help, when the inside is gone. 

The only way of resisting undue denominational pressure is to 
maintain our churches. If, when this pressure comes, as come 



40 Memoirs of Joseph W. Pickett. 

it will in every community of enterprise and expectation, we throw 
up our hands and show our liberality by dying, we must remember 
that we can glorify God but once in this direction. Whereas, if 
we live, and stretch forth our hands across the chasms of denomi- 
national strife and selfishness, and aid in every good work, we 
shall commend the faith and polity of our fathers, and their prin- 
ciples of liberty of conscience and equality of condition and re- 
sponsibility. I see and deplore more and more the corrupting 
tendencies of the centralized forms of church government. I am 
on terms of some intimacy with ministers of these denominations, 
and am amazed at the schemings for place and power, the rank- 
lings and heart-burnings, among them. These are a standing 
demand for a polity with different tendencies. 

As I look back to the time I first entered and crossed this State, 
I can hardly realize that this beautiful Iowa is the same land, then 
so wild and strange. The vast prairies of Central and Western 
Iowa, which appeared uninhabitable to my inexperienced eye, are 
now dotted with cities, farm-houses, school-houses, and churches. 
It is a wonderful transformation, resembling more the strangeness 
of fable than sober fact. 

There is a great work yet to be done in this State. It may be 
said to have been explored. Unsurpassed in salubrity of climate, 
in fertility of soil, and in the beauty and sublimity of its vast roll- 
ing prairies, in the centre of the continent, in the direct line of 
trans-continental travel, its inhabitants noted for intelligence and 
morality, it is adapted to be the home of those principles of civil 
and religious liberty which our fathers developed. 

In 1878, he wrote : — 

It is forty years this May since the first Congregational Church 
was planted in Iowa, at Denmark. Over the whole region of 
Central and Western Iowa roamed the Indian. Now this vast 
area, dotted with cities and villages and pleasant country-homes, 
has become the garden of the Lord. Christians of every name 
have come to possess the land, and have worked in harmony side 
by side, till churches and school-houses adorn the landscape from 



His Pecuniary Liberality. 41 

the Mississippi to the Missouri. We now have two hundred and 
twenty-five churches, and, at the close of these forty years of wan- 
dering and planting, are going in to possess the land with a vigor 
and energy greater than ever before. Although we have not de- 
veloped as rapidly as some other denominations, we have reason 
to thank God for the strong hold secured in this Commonwealth 
by those churches which seem to us the representative churches 
of America. 

During the nine years of my superintendency, Western Iowa 
has been rapidly settled, and is destined to become a stronghold 
of Congregationalism. In the valley of the Nishnabotana, — the 
garden-spot of the world, — we have been very successful. Of the 
new churches planted, scarcely one has been located where it will 
not be able to grow and prosper. Some have already become self- 
sustaining. During this period, thirty-three churches have been 
organized and thirty-three houses of worship dedicated. As we 
look into the future of this State and of these churches, we feel 
that, with fidelity and reliance upon God, it is to be even brighter 
than the past. 

To help the new and struggling churches, he gave 
almost half of his salary, also a portion of the little 
patrimony that fell to him. Chidecl for being so large 
and unstinted in his gifts, nothing could repress his 
devotion and sacrifice. Though reducing himself to 
straits and debt, he felt that the opportunity was great, 
and critical, and worthy the burdens. He rarely or 
never alluded to these things, but acted upon the 
apostolic rule, " He that giveth, let him do it with 
simplicity. ,, Writing confidentially near the close of 
his labors in Iowa, he said : — 

I saw during these years, beyond a doubt, that we were settling 
the condition of Congregationalism in Western Iowa for years, 
perhaps centuries ; and I spared nothing in time, labor, sacrifice, 



42 Memoirs of Joseph W. Pickett. 

or money, to plant our faith and polity. We were obliged to have 
houses of worship. ... I am now twelve hundred dollars in debt 
at bank. But the crisis is past. Railroad and town building have 
ceased ; and I have nothing to do but pay my debts, and Western 
Iowa is saved to us forever. 

To talk of common interests and responsibilities in 
his beloved circle of Iowa workers, develop efficiency 
in each local church, promote fellowship and co-opera- 
tion, diffuse information touching every department of 
Christian benevolence, and help on the more rapid 
progress of Christ's kingdom in the State, he published 
annually, the last five years of his superintendency, for 
gratuitous distribution, a little paper, entitled Church 
Work. It was commenced at his own expense ; subse- 
quently, others helped a little in the cost ; and one year 
the Church at Des Moines defrayed the bill. Three 
thousand copies of each number were circulated, with 
an additional eight hundred the last year. He filled it 
with stirring truths and facts, to awaken inquiry and 
stimulate enterprise and zeal in every good work. 
Some extracts from his articles in it, and from his 
other papers of this period, show his views of duty and 
life, and the spirit and character of his labors : — 

LETTERS TO THE CHILDREN OF IOWA, 
I. 

HAVE A PLAN IN LIFE. 

Dear Children of Iowa, — I cannot send out this paper without 
writing a letter to you. I know children like to get letters from 
their friends. I have visited many of you. I have seen some of 
you in your homes, and many at Sunday-school and at church. I 



Have a Plan in Life. 43 

have visited many thousands of you in school, and have felt 
greatly interested in your studies. 

I sometimes ask boys and girls, What are you going to do when 
you grow up ? I find you have plans. Some expect to be teach- 
ers ; some, good farmers and housekeepers ; some, mechanics 
and merchants ; some, ministers, physicians, or lawyers. I saw 
one boy the other day who said he was going to be a stage- 
driver. I think it is a good thing to have plans. A boy or a girl 
that has no plans will not do much in the world. I am glad to see 
you plan to have good lessons, to be good in school, to be always 
kind, never to tell a lie or swear, to be good to everybody, to study 
and read at home, and never miss a Sabbath at Sunday-school. 
Some children and some men never have plans : they float idly 
about all their lives, like a vessel on the ocean that is not going 
anywhere. 

I have often thought what one plan did for me. I forget how it 
happened ; but I made a plan, when a boy, never to sit down at 
home without a book or paper in my hand. I found a History of 
the United States, which I read through, and then a History 
of Greece and of Rome, aud father took the New York Tribune. 
It was pretty dry sometimes ; and I worked so hard on the dear 
old farm that I could hardly hold my head up. But my plan 
helped me through .; and I learned about this country and all the 
countries in the world, which is a great help to me now. How 
well I remember the table in the loved home, that was brought out 
every night with the light on it, around which we children used to 
read and study ! Plan to read those books which will do you the 
most good. I expect some of you are making plans to go away to 
school and to college some time. I like that. I never knew how 
to enjoy my home fully till I came home in vacation ; and I never 
liked work so well as after studying hard away at school. 

Now, I want you to make one more plan that will help you more 
than all the rest. I want you to plan to be Christians. I made 
this plan when a boy, and I am so happy that I have lived to 
carry it out. 

December, 1873. 



44 Memoirs of Joseph W. Pickett. 

II. 

HABITS. 

Dear Children, — Can you tell me what a habit is ? I think this 
definition will suit you : it is the effect of doing again and again 
the sa?ne thing. 

Habits become stronger every time the act is repeated, till at 
length a character is formed ; for a good definition of character is 
the sum of all our habits. So, if I want to know your character, 
all I have to do is to add your habits together, and I can tell what 
kind of men and women you are to be. 

A boy forms a habit of swearing. That habit will get stronger 
every time he repeats it, until he will swear without knowing it ; 
and he will be led into bad company, and be ruined at last, be- 
cause he formed a bad habit when a boy. There is a boy or a girl 
that begins to tell little white lies at home or at school. They 
look so small that you think little of them. But they are the 
harmless egg of the serpent, which will hatch out the deadly adder 
to poison your life, and drive away from you the beautiful angel of 
truth. I see small boys forming a habit of chewing tobacco or 
smoking cigars. I think what an evil practice they are pinning 
to their lives, how much money they will waste that might be 
employed in doing good. I see other boys taking a glass of beer. 
They say, "This is nothing: just beer." Poor boys, I could weep 
for you ! I see such sorrow, wretchedness, and misery in the 
future. Oh, that terrible habit ! How gently it begins ! How 
harmless at first ! I see others who have a habit of breaking the 
Sabbath. When Sunday comes, they are restless, and go loafing 
and lounging. Many men in the State prison to-day say they 
began a life of wickedness by Sabbath-breaking. 

Some boys and girls form the habit of being kind and pleasant 
to every one; and it comes easy when they grow up. Others are 
cross and unkind, and form a habit of scolding and fretting ; and 
they have trouble with this habit all their lives. 

Some parents give their children a calf or lamb or other prop- 
erty, and tell them they can get rich, and have many things. 



Bad and Good Habits. 45 

These children grow up with this thought: they live for them- 
selves alone, and think of nothing else. They will not give for 
the Sunday-school or for any good cause ; but their hearts be- 
come smaller and smaller as they love money more than Christ, 
and at last they become misers. When I came through Kansas 
last summer, on my way from Colorado, I spent my Sabbath with 
a college professor. I went out to his garden, which was all eaten 
up by the grasshoppers, and his little boys. showed me two rows 
of sweet potatoes they had planted, which they were going to dig 
and sell, and send the money to missionaries to the heathen. But 
the grasshoppers had completely ruined them ; and, as the boys 
and the father looked upon the rows for the heathen children, they 
seemed to feel worse about them than for the rest of the garden. 
Those boys were forming habits of working for others, which will 
make them like Jesus. 

I must tell you a story I heard the other day : Two boys, 
James and John, formed the habit of reading about the heathen, 
and giving money to help save them. When they grew up to be 
almost men, John said : " Somebody must go to tell the heathen 
about Jesus. Ought not we to go ? " James said, " We have to 
work on the farm, and take care of father and mother, who are 
growing old ; and we have not money to go to college and become 
missionaries." John said, " That is so." But a great aad noble 
thought came to James. " I have it," he said: " I will stay at home 
and work hard, and take care of father and mother, and earn 
money enough to send you to college, and then to \ the heathen." 
" I will go," said John. So he went to college and studied hard, 
and James stayed at home and worked, and saved all he could, and 
father and mother helped, too ; and John went through college, 
and then far across the ocean to the heathen, and James supported 
him all the way. Now, which do you think was the missionary, 
James or John ? " Both of them," you say. That is so ; and 
father and mother, too. I love to think what a happy family they 
were in the dear home, as they read John's letters about the 
heathen, and felt they were all helping. Yes ; and, when they get 
to heaven, I think they will be happy to meet John and the 



46 Memoirs of yoseph W. Pickett. 

heathen he has brought with him. Will not Jesus join that circle, 
as they tell how they labored and prayed and sacrificed for him on 
earth, and tried to walk in his steps? Will it not be worth more 
than all the selfish pleasure they could have had in this world, to 
hear him say, " Well done " ? 

Now, boys and girls, I want you to form habits of reading about 
missionaries and helping their work. That will make you mis- 
sionaries. Some of you will go, and some will stay and work hard 
to support the rest. Yes, James and John and Charley, all of you ; 
and the girls, too, Lizzie and Jennie and Mary, — it would take a 
great deal of paper to call all your names, — we want you to 
form these habits of being like Jesus, and doing good. I know 
that the best thing we can do is to try and help this world to be 
better. Do you find it hard sometimes to be good ? Yes, Jesus 
knew you would, and came from heaven on purpose to help us. 
Let me tell you of one more habit which will be a great blessing 
to you, — the habit of coming to Jesus every day in prayer, and of 
feeling that your life is united with his. This will be worth more 
than all the world. 

January, 1875. 

III. 

EVERY CHILD TO DO HIS DUTY. — MIND, MORALS, AND RELIGION 
TO BE CULTIVATED. 

Dear Children, — One hundred years since, our fathers fought 
to make us free and happy, marking with blood from their bare 
feet the frozen ground on which they marched, because the nation 
was too poor to buy a few thousand pairs of shoes. We shall not 
forget them ; and we shall often ask, What can I do to make the 
nation still greater and better ? 

I find that every one who does good in the world asks that 
question. Well-doing does not come, like wild fruit, without cul- 
tivation. It takes resolution and perseverance to be good and to 
do good. When the gallant Nelson fought the great naval battle 
with France, he hung up at the mast-head of his flag-ship the 



Motto for a Child. 47 

words, " England expects every man to do his duty." Those 
words may have gained for England that victory. So, my young 
friends, I think the best thing for you to do is to hang up over the 
unwritten page of this year this motto : " God expects every boy 
and girl to do their duty." 

You do not want this year covered with blots ; and it will be, if 
you do not try to prevent it. A hard fight we all have with wrong 
and temptation ; and we shall have to lopk at the flag-ship a good 
many times, if we are not overcome. You want a great deal of 
pleasure this year, and that you cannot have, unless you are a hard 
worker. Then, when you have a play-day, you will enjoy it, but 
not without. The idler can never be happy. 

I will say a few things to put on your ringers to remember. 
1. Your minds must be cultivated. This is what you are in 
school for. But only a few persons have cultivated minds. It is 
only the thinkers and those who love to think hard that are bene- 
fited. I can tell the hard thinkers. They read useful books and 
papers, and talk about what they read, and think of it when by 
themselves, and plan to make study useful. 

You have a good religious paper for family reading, and a chil- 
dren's paper for the smaller ones. What a blessing this is in 
your home ! Talk with father and mother about what you read. 
It will do them good. It will do you good. When you find what 
you think will do you good, treasure it up, or have a book to 
write it in. I was looking over my old blank-books the other 
day, where I wrote many years ago things worth remembering. 

2. Here is for your second finger. Your morals must be culti- 
vated. We all have a work in this direction. I saw one of the 
best girls in this State crying as if her heart would break. She 
threw her arms around an elder sister's neck, and whispered. 
After she had gone away, I asked the elder sister what she said. 
The reply was, "It is so hard to be good." I thought, if that girl 
finds it hard to be good, what will become of the rest of us ? I 
saw that she had become good by hard trying every day. 

Look at that boy who swears. I feel sorry for him, and I 
always speak to him about it. He sometimes laughs, and runs 



48 Memoirs of Joseph W. Pickett. 

off. But, if every one would make that rule, there would be less 
swearing. Then, there is the boy or girl that tells lies. I feel 
sorry for them, too. They go to school to get good, and destroy 
it by this bad habit. Let this be a year of truthfulness. The boy 
that uses tobacco, I feel sorry for. He smokes cigars, and burns 
away in a few days enough to buy him a good book or a paper for 
the family. I have been expecting to see this habit broken up ; 
but its practice, after physicians and. educators tell us it is inju- 
rious, shows how weak moral principle is in our young men. My 
young friends, this is a good year to begin with firmness as to 
these poisons to soul and body. 

3. Here I have a beautiful, sparkling ring for your third finger. 
I hope you will wear it all the year : yes, and you may keep it on 
always. It will not break nor wear out. Resolve this year to be 
a bright, happy, and useful Christian. This precious privilege is 
worth all else. You and I can never thank God enough for the 
gift of his Son, to wash away every thing dark and bad from our 
hearts, and give us every thing bright and good. We do not think 
of this enough. You must ask somebody to tell you the story of 
Joseph Neesima, the Japanese boy, who ran away from home, that 
he might come to America and learn about Jesus, and how God 
led him, and he became a missionary. It is a grand story. They 
call me a home missionary, because I go around among our 
churches and try to do them good. But I want to call you a 
home missionary, because you make home bright and beautiful 
with goodness, and your neighbor's home happy with your pres- 
ence. Some of you will become Christians, and unite with the 
church this year ; so it will be the best year of your life. So 
wear this ring, and you will have ornaments enough. 

Now, let me look at your hand once more. Yes, I see. There 
is the first finger, which tells you to care for your mind, and the 
second for your morals, and the third for the religion of Jesus, to 
help all the rest. And now, with one more good look at the flag- 
ship, we will go out to the duties of the year. 

January, 1876. 



Prayer- Triangles, 49 

IV. 

PRAYER-TRIANGLES. — LIFE A COPY-BOOK. 

Dear Children, — Happy New Year to all ! I know you are 
looking for this greeting, which has come to you for three years. 
I called the other day at a home in Western Iowa, when a little 
girl ran to the bookcase and brought my last year's paper, telling 
me how much she had enjoyed my letter. How I should like to 
see you all this bright morning ! But, next to seeing friends, is 
writing to them. I should like to welcome you to my pleasant 
office in Des Moines. From this quiet room has gone forth much 
thought and feeling and prayer for our beautiful Iowa, and many 
wishes for you, that you may be noble and true, and do great good 
in the world. Here I have made a great many prayer-triangles to 
every place where this paper will go. 

You ask : " What do you mean ? Tell me what prayer-triangles 
are." You know a triangle is a figure with three sides. One is 
the line of thought between me and you; the second is the 
thought I lift to God for you ; and the third is the blessing from 
God to you. Along that line, I have often felt that some bless- 
ings were coming down. Yes ; and, when God sent the blessing, 
he did not forget the other line. He also sent joy to me ; and 
then the line between us seemed to thrill so sweetly. 

Do you know that along these lines God sends almost all the 
spiritual blessings that come to this world ? Perhaps no one is 
converted without some one praying for him. Thus God works 
through these triangles. Think how many of them we can make, 
— for father and mother, for brother and sister, for your minister 
and teacher, for your church and Sabbath-school, for your town, 
for our State and country, for the world, for our missionaries, — 
that the heathen may listen to the story about Jesus, who loved us 
and gave himself for us. 

But I must not talk longer about this beautiful triangle. I 
wonder if you will understand it. Ah ! here comes from his cosey 
bed my twelve-year-old visitor from Mount Pleasant with " A 
happy New Year ! " He shall hear what I have written. . . . He 



50 Memoirs of Joseph W. Pickett, 

says : " I never thought of that before. It is beautiful, papa ; and 
the triangle is a right-angle triangle." Yes, I see you understand 
it, for children have better teachers now than the older people 
had. May we learn how to use it morning and evening, and 
through the day ! Then life will be happy and pure, and every 
bitter fountain will be turned into sweetness. 

Not yet light ! This is an early talk; but the printers are wait- 
ing, and this letter must reach you this week. How beautiful the 
morning ! Not a cloud in the sky, only the stars and the moon, 
bright and clear. The shadows of the naked trees lie about my 
window on the white snow, pure and clean as the unwritten page 
of the new year upon which you and I are just beginning to write. 

Life has been compared to a copy-book, neat and clean when 
you buy it. There is the white paper with its straight lines, and 
a beautiful copy at the top. Your life and mine is that copy-book. 
Each page is a year, each line is a day. The lines are the laws 
of right, and the copy is Jesus our Saviour. Now we all begin 
to write. You will have written a few lines before this reaches 
you. There are two things we will try to do, — keep the line, and 
write as near like the copy as we can. Write with a steady hand. 
Lift up your eye to the copy often. That is the secret of life. 
Now, let us try to make this our best year on earth, — the year to 
study the hardest, work most faithfully, speak kindest words, do 
noblest deeds, love the most. Look out ! That habit will bring 
you below the line. The line is the Commandment : — 

" Thou shalt not." 
" Remember." 
" Honor." 

Do the lines of the year seem many? Soon they will all be 
written. But some of us may stop in the middle of the page, and 
in the middle of the line, and the rest will remain unwritten for- 
ever. I heard yesterday that Mr. P. P. Bliss, your sweet singer, 
had been killed by a terrible railroad accident. His songs seemed 
sweeter than ever, as we thought of him singing the songs of 
heaven. .Shall we sing with him " the new song," and with Jesus, 



"God in Everything" 51 

our greater Leader? How many of you will become Christians 
this year, and give your life to doing good ? 

Well, my letter is again long. The morning sun is throwing his 
first rays over the grand walls of the new Capitol, and I will throw 
a good-by to you all. Make the triangles j remember the bright 
page j keep the line; look to the copy. 

January, 1877. 

V. 

GOODNESS. 

Dear Children, — I think I have never enjoyed trying to do 
good so much as during the past year. Is there anything that 
makes us so happy? How bright it makes the world and the 
heavens ! I have been looking at the stars a good deal lately, — so 
many that we cannot count them, and so far away that we cannot 
measure the distance. Yet God made all these ; and how strong 
and wise and good he must be ! I look at the glow of early morn- 
ing and the brightness of evening, and I cannot help thinking of 
God in everything. Is it not sweet to have the thought of him in 
all we see and hear and know ? I visited a home a few days since. 
A little friend said, " Our rose is in blossom on purpose for you." 
It was fragrant and beautiful in its rich purple dress. How could 
I help feeling thankful to God in my heart ? 

When I look upon your house-plants, and see the delicate ivy 
climbing along so carefully, and geraniums of various hues, and 
verbenas and pinks and fuchsias, and how God has made each 
leaf and stalk and flower out of the same dark earth, I say in my 
heart, Our God is a wonder-working God. Yes ; and next spring 
we shall walk out into God's great world-house, and see what he 
has made there. Every leaf and flower, every tree and blade of 
grass, speak of his goodness and love. I have scarcely ever 
walked in the beautiful woods alone, since a boy, without kneeling 
down to thank God for all his goodness. The woods, the groves 
about your house, seem like God's church that he built for us to 
worship in. I love to enter them and listen to the winds murmur- 
ing through the leaves. It seems like God's great organ, sounding 



52 Memoirs of Joseph W. Pickett. 

sweetly of his love. I do not wonder that all Israel, when they 
came up to their beautiful temple, used to chant in a great chorus : 

" Oh, give thanks unto the Lord : 
For he is good ; his mercy endureth forever." 

I think we shall all say, I had rather have a thankful heart than 
everything else in this world. 

I got a letter from the deacon of a church last week. He said, 
" We have no pastor, and we want you to come and receive a num- 
ber of our children into the church." That made me feel very 
happy, — to think the children were finding Jesus, even without a 
pastor. Yes, Jesus is not hard to find, when we seek him with the 
whole heart. We shall all find it the happiest life to take him 
as our Saviour, and do good and be useful. 

With much love, I remain your friend, 

J. W. Pickett. 

January, 1878. 



THE PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE OF IOWA. 

It is now forty years since the first settlement was made (June i, 
^?>i)' Our development for a time was slow. Indian titles were 
but just extinguished ; the vast, untrodden prairies were shunned 
by settlers of the well-wooded East ; the early inhabitants clung 
to the timbered watercourses and patches of woodland. They 
little dreamed of the throbbing life soon to sweep over those 
solitudes. 

Within a few years, all is changed. Trade, with its swift in- 
stincts, has found highways through these fertile prairies for 
spanning the continent, and bears to us the wealth and population 
of the nations. From Germany, Scandinavia, England, and all 
parts of our country, an increasing tide is sweeping in upon us. 

In the southern half of the State, more than one hundred 
churches of our faith and order have been planted. What is to 
be their future, and their influence upon the future of the State, 



A Christian State. 53 

of Christianity, and of the world? If we have not misappre- 
hended, there is with many something of the purpose that actuated 
the Pilgrim Fathers, — to plant institutions and a Christian State 
which shall reflect more perfectly the image of Christ. They feel 
that the highest work of life is to develop a Christian civilization, 
and give themselves, their property, and their all for the moral 
regeneration of the world. It may require a vision like that of 
Abraham to span the coming centuries, but God will give it to 
. them that ask him. 

There is a grand and an almost awful meaning in the fact that 
this beautiful and fertile section of the world was left unoccupied 
by civilized man through the ages, and is thrown open for us to 
occupy at such a time as this. Why were all its secret treasures 
hidden from the cupidity of the nations, now to be flung open to 
all people in this period of the world's grandest possibilities ? 

Our State is passing to a period of responsible manhood. We 
take our position in the world for good or evil. It is a critical 
period with a State, as with an individual, when its life comes in 
contact with the world. That is our position to-day. As Chris- 
tians, we must not become absorbed in farms, shops, and house- 
hold cares, when the world's mighty voices are ringing in our 
ears. We must feel that these things are but means to ends. 
We must stand on the watch-tower of consecration and service, 
and ask, " What wilt thou have me to do ? " It is possible that 
we have been called to lay the foundations of a higher type of 
piety than the world now enjoys, to cultivate a truer Christian 
simplicity in thought and manner of living, to develop wealth for 
the grand consummation of the world's conversion. If so, what 
joy and peace will come to us with this object ever in view! Plow 
pleasant sacrifice will become, as this mission opens with widen- 
ing prospect ! How our children's hearts will thrill with these 
conceptions, and what enduring legacies will we leave them in 
thoughts of sacrifice for others, and of fidelity to God, while 
worldly fortunes shrivel in financial disaster ! 

December, 1873. 



54 Memoirs of Joseph W. Pickett, 

WEAKNESS IN CHURCHES. 

i. A church may shrink from the sacrifice demanded in provid- 
ing a suitable place of worship ; or the house may be partially 
completed, with a heavy debt, and no strenuous efforts to cancel 
it ; or it may be unfit for worship by negligence. Sometimes a 
week's labor of the pastor is lost by failure of the sexton to build 
a fire in season, or from having no sexton, and leaving the first 
comer to do the work, amid shivering children and anxious par- 
ents ; or an old stove and uncleaned pipe or chimney fills the 
house with smoke, so that the service becomes an agony, and the 
worshipper rushes from his place of confinement, performing at 
least one act of devotion as he thanks God for the pure air and 
clear sky. Are these small things? But such things give success 
or failure. 

2. The pastor's salary may be unpaid when due. Churches 
guilty of this cannot realize the anxiety and injury produced by 
this neglect. You have secured a pastor, and promised to pay 
him eadi quarter. The term expires. The church of the cove- 
nant-keeping God has broken its promise. The pastor is in want. 
But often less endurable than want and suffering is the thought 
that the church is indifferent to its pledges, and not in sympathy 
with its pastor. Dear brother, would you strengthen your church, 
see that on the day your pastor's salary is due it is paid, every 
cent. The Israelite was blessed in giving to God the frrst-fruits 
of his increase. He was not to taste of bread or parched corn or 
green ears till he had brought an offering to God. 

But we cannot meet this obligation, you say. The words can 
and cannot will change their meaning before the millennium. A 
follower of Christ can do some things, if necessity requires. He 
can give up tobacco, tea, coffee, sugar ; he can do without car- 
pets ; he can dispense with many comforts which it is pleasant to 
have. But he cannot afford to break one pledge that he makes for 
Christ's kingdom. Do you desire to strengthen your pastor in his 
sermons, to cheer him in the closet, to sweeten his visitations from 
house to house, to give efficiency to all his labors? Keep your 
pledges of support to the letter. Better walk through the worst 



The Church an embodied Conscience. 55 

Iowa mud five miles to church meeting than violate a pledge one 
hour. Let the church be an embodied conscience, and in its busi- 
ness teach the world the beauty and power of truth and personal 
integrity. 

3. Look into the prayer-meeting. How many of the members 
are present, and who are they? If the good deacons and Sun- 
day-school workers feel the necessity of the place of prayer to 
renew their strength, how must the case stand with you who are 
not active in Christian work, and are covered with the dust of 
business and worldly care ? Why are you not there ? Are you 
detained by business, p^asure, weariness, or other engagements? 
May not these excuses dishonor Christ? 

The same inquiries might be made respecting Sunday-school 
work, and the extra meetings of the church, often necessary for 
its spiritual growth. It may be found that weakness has come 
through neglect in these, which you have thought small, matters. 

4. We mention one more cause of weakness, — discord among 
brethren. We cannot express our anguish as we have seen Christ 
thus wounded in the house of his friends. There are churches 
dismantled, houses of worship falling to decay, their tottering 
spires pointing to heaven in silent protest against the spirit of 
strife which has eaten like a cancer. But the blame is with the 
other party. Yes, we know that. We also feel sure that, if you 
realized the crime you are committing against religion, against the 
Saviour who died, yea, against your ow r n soul, you would never 
leave your closet till these divisions are melted in the crucible 
of love. Persons think so differently that I have resolved, for the 
sake of peace, to go three-fourths of the way ; for, if each is only 
willing to go half-way, neither will come quite to the line, and their 
hands will not touch. 

December, 1873. 



PROVIDE THINGS HONEST. 

One hindrance to the growth of our churches is the laxness in 
business habits of a portion of the members. They cannot enter 



56 Memoirs of yoseph W. Pickett. 

upon systematic beneficence, because they have nothing to lay by 
in store on the first day of the week, though having means of 
acquiring wealth such as the world never before furnished. They 
incur debts on every hand, — store-bills, grocer's, butcher's. They 
have nothing to pay till their crops come in, and then their lump 
is devoured by half-famished creditors in a moment. In these 
wasteful methods, their word is forgotten, promises are straws, 
broken at a touch, and men's consciences are debauched. Our 
ministers suffer perplexity and embarrassment from these unchris- 
tian ways. Men belonging to the church have given their prom- 
ises, and then with those promises broken look their minister in 
the face for a whole hour every Sunday morning without wincing. 
Do we wonder that churches remain unblest, with this hardening 
process going on ? 

You ask : " What shall we do ? We are in debt, and likely to 
be for some time." Call a solemn family council. Let husband, 
wife, and children concur that the first work is to free yourselves 
from debt, from this bondage of corruption. Deny yourselves 
every luxury ; live with strict economy ; give up every bad or 
expensive habit. Do not ask what you need, but what you can do 
without, and let this decide every purchase till you are ^free man. 
Then pay as you go, value for value. And banish what the world 
calls high life, the idea of rivalling your neighbor in dress or 
equipage. It is a snare and delusion, that ends in mortification. 
A man who conscientiously starts out with the resolve to keep 
every promise will be helped of God to do so. 

1875. 



DENOMINATIONAL COMITY. 

The world is moving in the line of Christian Brotherhood. 
Various denominations are realizing that they are not antagonistic 
elements, to rejoice over each other's discomfiture, but one body 
in Christ, and members one of another. In the midst of these 



Christian Brotherhood. 57 

signs of promise, the condition of churches in small towns is 
attracting attention, and Christians are beginning to wonder why 
a half dozen weak and sickly churches have been planted where 
one or two could accomplish the work better, and relieve ministers 
and means for regions beyond. A feeble, inefficient church does 
not commend religion to the world, nor honor God, nor inspire 
satisfaction and peace in his service. It is believed that our small 
churches in this State are cultivating a spirit of brotherly love 
toward all Christians, and are ready to engage in any union work 
which will advance the cause of Christ. We say to them, You 
have been receiving missionary money for years, and naturally ask 
what should be done as to organic union with other denomina- 
tions. It is doubtless your duty to inquire whether you have a 
special work to do in your community, which on the whole will 
honor Christ in the way you are doing it more than in any other. 
The time is at hand when the church that has no mission should 
yield to one that has. If you cannot be hot in the pursuit of 
righteousness and in saving the perishing, the Saviour has told us 
it were better to be cold. This ought to settle the matter of life 
or death. If you are not willing to make sacrifices, if no souls are 
saved, if there is general apathy, unless this can speedily change, 
we cannot see as Christ gives you a right to live. 

On the other hand, if there are a few earnest believers who feel 
after prayerful investigation that they can advance the cause of 
Christ more rapidly by uniting with some other Christian body, it 
is their duty to do so. We are not afraid to give such advice ; for 
the denomination that most honors Christ, and will permit nothing 
to stand between him and a perishing world, will be most honored 
of him. 

January, 1875. 

CONGREGATIONAL ORDER ADAPTED TO UNITE NEW 
COMMUNITIES. 

Four churches were organized in 1875 : at Mount Hope, Davis 
County, with twenty members ; Pilgrim Church in Union County, 



58 Memoirs of Joseph W. Pickett. 

with eighteen ; at Farragut, with thirty-five ; and Warren Town- 
ship, with thirty. Those familiar with the number usually uniting 
in the formation of a church will be surprised to see so many 
coming into one organization in these places. This is the reali- 
zation of a hope long entertained, that it would in time be seen 
that Congregational churches possess facilities for uniting all the 
Christian element of our small towns, which are not possessed by 
any other body. 

The organization of these churches, and of many others in 
Southern Iowa, within the past few years, on a union basis, is a 
proof that these hopes are not delusive. These churches were 
organized by the union of Christians of some six different denomi- 
nations, who saw the gain that must accrue by joining forces for 
the support of a regular pastor, instead of having only scattering, 
occasional preaching. It is believed that, where there is no inter- 
ference by ministers of any denomination, Christians will thus 
come together as naturally as drops of water. This opinion is 
demonstrated by facts every year. 

The Congregational polity is adapted above all others to our 
incoming population. No denomination has such facilities for 
planting the gospel in new communities as a Congregational 
Church. We believe that the Saviour committed all power to 
the local church, and hesitate to delegate this trust to any other 
body. A disregard of this principle opened the way for that 
abuse of power which has darkened the annals of the Church 
from the fourth century. We have a standard of equal rights 
and of Christian belief, upon which all Christians can unite 
without compromising any fundamental principle. 

Brethren of other ecclesiastical systems say: " We can find no 
fault with you, as far as you go. We confess that your churches 
have possessed great power in moulding the educational, civil, 
and religious institutions of our country, and that they harmo- 
nize with liberty." Others say, " If I had a church of my own, I 
should prefer it ; but I see no reasons why, in such a community 
as this, I should separate myself from you, because we differ 
respecting an external ordinance." Now, is this practical com- 



The Congregational Polity. 59 

mon-sense or not ? Is this view of religion to gain or to lose 
ground ? 

The whole Christian community in the thriving young town of 
Farragut came together in the recent organization, without consul- 
tation with any minister, refusing to be pulled to pieces by con- 
flicting denominational interests. All came together as one in 
Christ, to regulate their own affairs, choose and support their 
minister, and build their house of worship. But trials await 
them. Zealous ministers of various denominations may leave the 
fields where souls are perishing, and pry out a stone here and 
there from this temple to form little organizations, where mis- 
sionary money can be bestowed, and the steady work of a settled 
pastor be exchanged for scattered visits and precarious labors by 
those who cannot prosecute a course of Christian teaching and 
pastoral supervision, such as made the homes of New England 
centres of the best influences that have swayed the minds of men. 

1876. 



CONGREGATIONAL ORDER AND SECTARIANISM. 

If any Christians should have exalted views of the Church, it 
is the Congregational body. A fear is expressed by some of the 
New England fathers that we are becoming sectarian as a denom- 
ination. We who have passed among the Congregational churches 
of the West know that this is not the case. Our polity, our broad, 
evangelical faith, are necessarily undenominational. But there 
is a settled and strengthening determination to maintain our 
churches as an antidote against sectarian zeal and denominational 
aggrandizement. Shall we, when sectarian strife wages around 
our unwalled Zion, yield to the raging elements, and withdraw ? 
This would be a magnanimity second only to that which refused 
to plant our churches at all. No : where intense sectarianism de- 
velops itself, there the cause of Christ demands of us a firm and 
determined stand. With our evangelical faith as broad and a 



60 Memoirs of Joseph W. Pickett. 

polity as simple as the gospel, we are to stretch our hands across 
denominational barriers, and plead for harmony and fellowship. 
We have no " ism " to maintain, but a broad catholicity. We are 
linked to no ponderous courts of judicature, which may drag us 
from our gospel moorings. We have no Babel of ecclesiasticism 
that we are bound to rear to the heavens. I have yet to find the 
first Congregational Church in Iowa that is not known for liber- 
ality toward all Christians, and willingness to co-operate in every 
good work. Nothing but a pure love for souls can win the better 
class of our communities to Christ. We have yet to show that 
the local church as an organism born of God, complete in itself, 
looking to Jesus as its Head and to the Word of God as its rule, 
moving freely under the guidance of the Spirit, and drawing and 
assimilating all that is capable of being used in the spiritual 
temple, is the mightiest power for the moral rectification of the 
world. This faith, and courage to assert it, is all that is needed to 
organize victory. This will find important work to be done in the 
vicinity of every church, will give a hundred hands to do it, and 
will thus plant the germ of many future churches. When pastors 
and churches plan their work along every line of Christian activ- 
ity, and the entire membership resolve to carry out those plans, 
then the golden age of Christianity will have dawned. 



TO HIS MOTHER, ON HIS FORTY-FOURTH BIRTHDAY. 

The morning is beginning to dawn as I sit in the quiet of my 
pleasant room to meditate on the past. I have just awakened 
from a pleasant dream of the olden time. I was in the old sugar- 
camp, kindling the morning fire ; and I awoke to contemplate the 
rolling years and the changes time has wrought. I am forty-four, 
and must face the fact that a good share of life is gone. I can 
say that goodness and mercy have followed me all my days. 
Through the good hand of my God upon me, there has been no 



To his Mother. 61 

disappointment in my life-work. He has made my ways to pros- 
per. With my staff, I crossed this Jordan into this wild but beau- 
tiful land, and he has made me two bands. My Rachel is buried 
in the land of my pilgrimage ; but the son of my right hand God 
has watched over, and made him a comfort to me. He shall not 
be called Benoni. 

My one thought and desire is to abide under the shadow of the 
Almighty, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. I want to 
do the will of God completely, walking in all his ways and com- 
mandments blameless. Personal ambition has mostly passed away # 
It seems to me that God could have raised up another to have 
done this work as well as I, and that it will not occasion the least 
jar in his plans to dispense with me at any time and put another in 
my place. That he may work, without any hindrance on my part, 
whatever he has to accomplish through me, is my entire wish. 

But the light is dawning brighter, and I must close. I am very 
thankful that God has spared you so long, after a life of such toil 
and hardship. Your daily prayers have walked these prairies and 
planted these thirty-five churches, whose light breaks their vast- 
nesses. 

Des Moines, Jan. 28, 1876. 



A CHURCH ENLARGED. 

Some of our churches are coming to the conviction that spiritual 
enlargement is within their grasp, — that they have only to reach 
forth with faith and courage, in order to possess great spoils of 
Satan's kingdom. I will mention one church that has acted upon 
this conviction. Other cases are as remarkable. I was called, a 
few days since, to the dedication of a house of worship at Dunlap, 
a new town, a division-station on the North-western Railroad. 
One year ago, the Congregational Church in this pleasant village 
possessed a small edifice, poorly constructed, smoky and dingy, 
in the suburbs of the town, and inconvenient of access. A small 



62 Memoirs of Joseph W. Pickett. 

congregation worshipped here, that had struggled for some years 
amid conscious poverty and more or less divisions. A year since 
there came to this people a strong desire for the spirit of God. 
Meetings were held, with marvellous results. This sceptical town 
was revolutionized by the Spirit. Merchants, bankers, leading 
men, were converted. The strength of the" two churches, Method- 
ist and Congregational, was doubled. Our people said, " Let us 
arise and build." A subscription paper was circulated. Hard 
times were forgotten, men's poverty disappeared. One man gave 
six hundred dollars. Others of the new converts gave hundreds 
each. The most eligible site in the town was chosen, and a 
number of lots were purchased. The result is a beautiful house 
of worship, costing some four thousand dollars, with audience- 
room, prayer-room, and minister's study on the same floor, open- 
ing together, and presenting an attractive appearance. And all 
was accomplished without aid from the Union, without debt, or 
collection on dedication day. Reaching there after dark on the 
evening before dedication, the guests were ushered into the audi- 
ence-room, and welcomed by a large assembly. The chandeliers 
were brightly burning. Baskets of trailing vines were pendent 
from the walls. Calla lilies and other flowers adorned the choir 
and pulpit. The view to one whose last visit had been to the old 
church was enchanting. 

The next morning at six o'clock, the bell called to prayer. The 
morning was of surpassing loveliness. The light broke clear and 
beautiful over the vast rolling prairies. The morning star seemed 
to beam upon one object that drew all eyes. It was our first view 
of the exterior of the church. The spire and pinnacles rising 
from the fair structure, the central object in this romantic town, 
revealed one of the most tasteful churches in Western Iowa. The 
prayer-meeting, well attended, was followed by a fellowship-meet- 
ing at ten, the dedication services at two P.M., and preaching in 
the evening. The next day, similar meetings were held, com- 
munion taking the place of the dedicatory service. I cannot de- 
scribe the joy and enthusiasm that attended these services. 

With a bound, the church has sprung into life. Old difficulties 



Systematic Giving. 63 

have passed away. Warm love for Christ and each other seems 
to characterize the whole body. Each member bears the mantle 
of a broad, Christian charity, and the church is becoming a busy 
workshop for Christ. Is this anything more than the power of 
his religion and the normal condition of a body of true believers ? 

1S76. 



THE IMPORTANCE OF SYSTEMATIC GIVING. 

Neither the calls for increasing liberality nor the true concep- 
tion of Christian giving can be satisfied through the present 
method of raising funds for religious purposes. Look at the 

Demands for Increasing Liberality. 

In our own land, immigration is setting westward, so as to move 
the centre of population for the nation five miles each year along 
fifteen hundred miles of longitude, peopling an area equal to 
Massachusetts. Into this region are pressing the evil and the 
good, the drinking-saloon and the gambl-ng-house contending with 
the church and the school-house. In every town and village, this 
contest is being waged ; and the right is hampered by lack of 
means to carry forward Christian enterprises. 

Now is the golden moment for the freedmen of the South. Our 
appliances for giving a Christian education to this class of our 
countrymen reveal the hand of God in preparing us for a work of 
immense extent among them. But at this crisis the means are 
wanting to do that work. 

To-day, the gates of opportunity are open w T ide throughout the 
earth, and the Church is invited to enter. Yet we are forced to 
listen to that pitiful cry of " retrenchment " from the American 
Board, which has carried sadness to missionary stations in all 
parts of the heathen world. 

Among ourselves, ministerial labor and all Christian enterprise 
are hampered by inadequate support. Every device that ingenuity 



64 Memoirs of Joseph W. Pickett, 

can contrive has been resorted to for raising funds. Appeals to 
pleasure, to pride, to the stomach, to chance, to almost every prej- 
udice and passion, have been made, until the work of raising 
money for Christ's kingdom has become so rasping to sensitive 
persons that they will undertake it only under pressure of con- 
science or dire necessity. It is intimated that this continual 
appeal to worried and exhausted sensibilities cannot longer ac- 
complish even partial results. An English writer thinks that 
reaction has already set in, and that there is danger of serious 
diminution in the receipts of benevolent societies. 

Limits of Ability to Give, 

We hear the statement made on every hand, "We cannot do 
more." Is this so ? Let us glance at the contributions of our 
denomination. For home and foreign missions and the freedmen, 
we give somewhat more than a million of dollars ; and for other 
objects, another million. For home expenses, we may estimate 
five millions more, making a total of seven millions. The 
amount raised by all denominations in our country for the sup- 
port and spread of the gospel is nearly fifty millions. Compare 
this with amounts expended in some other directions. 

Dr. Young, chief of the Bureau of Statistics, gives the esti- 
mated cost of intoxicating liquors consumed in the United States 
in a single year at seven hundred and thirty-five millions of dol- 
lars, almost fifteen times the amount given by all the churches 
of Christ in the land for the establishment and extension of his 
kingdom. We look with pride at what our State has done for 
the establishment of that kingdom within our borders. All the de- 
nominations give something over a million of dollars each year 
for religious purposes. But Iowa expends in a single year for 
intoxicating liquors fifteen million and three hundred and sixty- 
five thousand dollars, more than ten times the amount given for 
all religious purposes. Can the most unthrifty class of our popu- 
lation give such sums without a murmur to gratify a degrading 
appetite ? And will Christians, who profess to see the coming of 
the Lord in the movements of our times, do no more for the salva- 



"Obligation to God" 65 

tion of a world ? Is it possible that our churches are paying more 
for single articles of luxury than for the maintenance of religion ? 
We come to the conclusion which all arrive at who have investi- 
gated this subject, — that we have scarcely touched the borders 
of our capabilities. 

The Only Adequate Motive. 

How, then, shall we meet the demands of the hour ? Shall we 
strive to make more vivid appeals ? Shall ministers on each re- 
curring year try to outdo themselves in gathering startling facts, 
and in pressing truth home, until, in some excited moment, men 
unclasp the purse before Mammon is aware of it ? Shall we look 
for a wave of enthusiasm to sweep over the world, leading the 
churches to lay a richer offering on the altar ? But tidal waves 
ebb, and there is no sure dependence here. There is a growing- 
conviction that our failure has been one of method, — that we have 
been giving to various "causes," and have left out of sight the 
Supreme Cause. We have been looking at inferior reasons, and 
forgotten the highest motive that can appeal to the soul, — obliga- 
tion to God. 

The only thing that can save us, under our absorbing contact 
with sensuous objects, from gross materialism, is a pervading 
sense of our stewardship in the use of this world. That beautiful 
refrain of the Hebrews, 

" The earth is the Lord's, 
And the fulness thereof," 

must sound along the line of our daily avocations. God has leased 
this world to us for a term of years, and said, — 

"Occupy till I come." 

He claims a portion of all our earnings. As his steward, I have 
no right to use a farthing till I have reckoned with him and given 
him his just dues. Our gifts are to be the direct offering to God 
of a fixed portion of our income as an act of worship. Giving 
thus becomes lodged at the heart of the Christian life. It seems 
strange that the Christian world should have departed from this 



66 Memoirs of "Joseph W. Pickett. 

primal religious conception, and lost the sweetness and power of 
the words of Jesus : — 

" It is more blessed to give than to receive." 

This, and this alone, must prove the solution of the vexed ques- 
tion, and put a stop to those unworthy motives and commercial 
methods which have pervaded our Christian liberality. 

A Law Older than Moses. 

This giving of a definite portion of our earnings to God ante- 
dates the ceremonial law by hundreds of years, and probably was 
established from the beginning by divine command, together with 
the Sabbath day. The sacrifices of Cain and Abel were made in 
accordance with an established system. Abrarn, returning from 
the slaughter of the kings, would take no spoils to himself, " not 
from a thread to a shoe-latchet," yet acknowledged God's right to 
all, paying tithes to Melchisedec, the type of Christ. At that 
supreme moment in the life of Jacob, when the heavens opened, 
and the world of faith dawned upon him, he lifted up a pillar, and 
made a vow : " If God will be with me in the way that I shall go, 
then the Lord shall be my God, and of all that thou shalt give me 
I will surely give the tenth unto thee." In the Jewish law of 
tithes, the occasion and motive for these gifts are not stated, after 
our modern methods, as in the necessities of the priests and the 
temple service, but in this, — "that thou may est learn to fear the 
Lord thy God." And the priests were commanded to give, that 
they, too, might share in the acknowledgment of these supreme 
obligations. 

When the Jews wandered from God and neglected the weightier 
duties of the law, Christ reproved their hypocrisy, but declares of 
their tithing, even of garden-seeds : " This ought ye to have done, 
and not to leave the other undone." Throughout the word of 
God, giving from a pure heart, though out of the depths of pov- 
erty, is commended. The poor widow that cast into the treasury 
all her living was not impoverished, for He who stands over 
against the treasury saw her gift of love and knew her every need. 



Giving One-Tenth. 6? 

There are deeds that speak louder than any word of prayer or 
praise. The alabaster box of precious ointment not only filled 
the room where Jesus was with fragrance, but has filled the world 
for eighteen hundred years with the odor of a consecrated act. 
Paul exhorts poverty-stricken disciples to labor with their hands, 
that they may have to give to him that needeth. The moment 
one begins to give from pure motives, his life is transfigured : he 
joins the benefactors of his race. 

A Definite Portion, 

It is becoming more and more evident that setting apart a defi-" 
nite amount as a sacred portion for the Masters use is the 
starting-point of a revolution in the Church, — an antidote against 
extravagance on one hand and hoarding on the other. The Jew 
called the tithe the hedge around the rest of his property. Can 
one doubt the wholesome effect upon himself of having all his 
earnings thus pass under the eye of God ? 

Is it asked, How much shall each disciple give? We answer, 
A definite portion, determined beforehand with thought and prayer. 
With this decision, let there be faith in the promises, a conviction 
that no nun can give of his earnings, on the ground that " the 
Master hath need," who shall not in some way " receive an hun- 
dred-fold in this present time, and in the world to come life ever- 
lasting." In determining the amount to be given, remember that 
where much is given much will be required ; remember the land 
we possess, our means for developing wealth, the " unspeakable 
gift " we have received, and the demands of God upon his Church. 
In view of greater light, greater opportunities, and greater exhibi- 
tions of goodness and love, few will set apart less than one-tenth ; 
while many, with grateful Zaccheus, will give one-half, or, in emer- 
gencies like those of the early Church, will lay everything at the 
apostles' feet. 

Objections. 

It may be objected that this is binding us to the rigidity of law, 
to strict rules and arithmetical calculation. One says, " The gospel 
demands all ; and, after deducting the necessary expenses of my 



68 Memoirs of yoseph W. Pickett. 

family, I intend to give Gocl the rest." Well, these intentions are 
good, but many who plead them may be robbing God. Amid the 
multiplying wants of our times, is there not danger in these cases 
that, unconsciously, God will be cheated out of his rightful dues, 
and get a mere pittance ? Have we not reason to think that the 
only way to secure him against this wrong is to bestow upon him 
the Jtrst-irmts of our substance ? 

We follow strict rules in the observance of the Sabbath, giving 
to God a definite portion of time. Why not apply the same rule 
to our means ? What Christian would say, " I will not be bound 
by any rule as to holy time ; but, when I have taken what I need 
for myself and family, God shall have the rest"? Amid the multi- 
plying demands upon our time, who would trust himself? 

Again, it is said, " It is too much trouble to keep this bank- 
account with God." Yes, to him who has no heart in the service 
of God, it may seem trouble ; but to those with whom religion is 
a life, a daily walk with God, this recognition of stewardship will 
be a constant source of delight. Prayer without ceasing is trouble 
to him who has no heart in it, daily watchfulness over besetting 
sins is trouble ; but, to him who makes the service of God more 
than meat and drink, these duties become privileges. 

Advantages. 

i. Nothing else gives so clearly the idea of stewardship as this 
daily reckoning with God. Ministers will not waste strength and 
patience in continual pumping to keep the channels of liberality 
full, but the streams of charity will flow from an interior river of 
living water. Our giving will not depend upon the pungency of 
sudden appeal, or upon the tact and shrewdness of the operator 
upon our sensibilities, but upon our Avell-considered obligations to 
God and to the spread of his kingdom. Conscience and principle 
will take the place of irregular impulse and fitful sensibility. 

2. All the difficulties in the way of weekly offerings will be 
obviated. In the portion consecrated to God, every one will have 
a gift to bring on each recurring Sabbath. The difficulty of secur- 
ing a consent of the will to give to the treasury of the Lord what 



A High Ideal. 69 

has been already appropriated to the multifarious uses to which 
property is now applied is the mountain barrier in the way of sys- 
tematic giving. Assign unto the Lord first the fixed portion 
which is his due, and all these difficulties vanish. 

3. We shall then study with pleasure the great enterprises of 
the age. It will be a matter of interest to select the channels in 
which our benefactions may flow, so as best to honor God and 
bless mankind. The missionary sermon will no longer be re- 
garded a tiresome device to extort our hoarded gains, but a 
source of coveted knowledge, aiding us to. determine where we 
may send our gifts. 

4. We shall thus be enabled to use the world as not abusing it. 
The thought that all our work and gains are passing in review be- 
fore God will be a restraint upon those unworthy practices and 
doubtful methods that now deaden conscience and paralyze the 
Christian life. 

June 1, 1876. 



IMPORTANCE OF A HIGH IDEAL TO CHURCHES AND 
MINISTERS. 

We speak of model churches, of what a church ought to be, as 
if there were no possibility of realizing the conception. This is 
wrong. The carpenter has his plan for a house, and expects to 
see it realized in the building. If it is not, his disjointed, un- 
matched work is a source of annoyance. I read of the sick 
architect of the bridge across East River, New York. As he 
was lifted so that his eye caught for the first time a glimpse of 
the great piers, he said, " It looks just as I expected it would ! " 
There is something sublime in this realization of an ideal. 

The churches would find it easier to keep everything throbbing 
with life and power than to remain cold and dead. They need a 
more efficient leadership. God's great care in the promotion of 
his kingdom has been in the selection of leaders. We must have 
able ministers or none. Some have entered the ministry who go 



yo Memoirs of Joseph W. Pickett. 

to and fro each season, like our migratory birds from Missouri to 
Minnesota. Unable to manage the smallest churches, they are 
ready to enter important fields in Iowa, and think themselves 
competent for any position. When one finds by fair trial that 
he cannot build up the cause of Christ, why should he not seek 
another calling ? 

There is need of pastors who will go from house to house, and 
kindle in families an enthusiasm for high thoughts and noble 
deeds. Every home needs a Socrates, to bring in purposes and 
thoughts different from those that actuate a majority of youth. 
If the pastor could enter as a friend and counsellor, and direct 
their reading and plans for life, what a revolution might be ef- 
fected ! I study the power of the old New England pastors in 
this direction with increasing interest. There is one fact that will 
remain to the end of time ; and this is that the personal, immedi- 
ate contact of a superior life is the mightiest agency God has 
appointed for kindling great thoughts and purposes in other 
minds, especially in youth. I pray for leaders of Israel, like 
Moses, Joshua, and Paul, to organize victorious churches, to 
stimulate our youth with a laudable ambition, 'and diffuse right- 
eousness and truth. 
1877. 



A MIGHT RIDE. 

I took the train to visit our lone Grand River Church, on Rev. 
David Knowles's field, Saturday afternoon. Reached Winterset at 
half-past six, and started on foot, expecting to walk about half the 
way, and go the rest of the distance in the morning. The night 
was very dark, and the road rough. After going some four miles, 
I was overtaken by a man in a light, two-horse wagon, whom I 
hailed and found to be going into the same neighborhood, some 
fifteen miles from Winterset. He had a lantern, which I held ; 
and we swept on with a will. In going down the bluff to Middle 
River, the driver's side of the wagon suddenly went down over the 



An Adventure. 71 

edge of a deep gully, precipitating him head-first into the darkness. 
The horses did not stop. The wagon dropped on the axle for a 
moment, when the wheel again struck the bank, and was lifted out 
without upsetting the wagon. But the shock lifted me bodily, and 
I followed in the wake of my companion. The sensation experi- 
enced, when I saw that I must land it was impossible to guess 
where, was very peculiar, and not easily forgotten. I have felt 
the like two or three times before in dangerous emergencies. 
But, as a kind Providence would have it, I was thrown forward, 
so as to clear the gully, and alight square on my feet on the solid 
bank, lantern in hand. I threw a momentary glance on my 
friend, to see whether he was killed or needing immediate succor, 
and saw him scrambling in the sand below me. All this occupied 
about a second of time. My whole thought was now turned to 
the horses. They had never stopped, and were prancing, much 
excited, down the hill, preparatory to a run. They still kept the 
road, from which we had varied but two or three feet in going off. 
Every time I said, ".Whoa ! " they would break a little, till a swift 
run for about forty yards brought me to the bits of the off-horse, 
which I seized, and we were safe. My friend soon came up, much 
jarred by the fall, having struck on his head at the bottom of the 
gully ; but the ground was soft, and the injury slight. He took 
the lantern, went back, gathered up the cushions, etc., and we 
went on rejoicing. The Sabbath was a very pleasant one. 

February, 1878. 



TEMPERANCE REVIVAL. 

The Temperance Revival seems to overshadow every other 
interest just now. It is a marvel. The Red Ribbon and the Blue 
Ribbon Movement are both operating in various parts of the 
State. The excitement, the contagion, is wonderful. I think it 
will operate in favor of earnestness in religion, and be an apology 
for it among irreligious men, who see how it is with themselves 



72 Memoirs of Joseph W. Pickett. 

when aroused to grapple with evil. The movement sweeps like 
wildfire. The excitement is at its height during the singing and 
signing the pledge. Knots of men, often of women, form around 
an intemperate man, and there is no resisting the pressure. Con- 
tinual cheering is going on from the crowded galleries and every 
part of the house, as one after another noted " bruiser " goes to 
the platform to " sign." A beautiful woman stands ready to 
fasten the ribbon on the dilapidated coat. The only drawback 
is that the religious element does not come in sufficiently. The 
work has taken hold of the "roughs," and gone down through the 
lowest stratum. Men from the gutter see themselves the pets of 
society. The immense halls are crowded almost to suffocation; 
The odors, sometimes unbearable, tell you the depths have been 
stirred ; while the coarseness of language and method puts out 
some of the Christian people, so that they scarcely know what to 
do. The " roughs," of course, are made prominent, so as to 
reach their own class ; and the religious element seems almost 
necessarily kept in the background. I am not criticising the 
movement, but showing how its force and impetuosity have swept 
it, to some extent, beyond the reach of our Christian people. But 
when the excitement has passed, and these newly awakened hopes 
and aspirations begin to seek their proper objects more calmly, 
then will be the time for a great religious work, if Christians are 
only ready. 

February, 1878. 



IMPORTANCE OF THE THOROUGH CHRISTIANIZATION OF 
THE UNITED STATES. 

It is easier to sweep over wide regions, and partially Christianize 
them, than to hold them a thorough conquest for Christ. This 
last work is the crowning test of power. 

It was revealed in ancient times that one nation might become 
the light of the world. What efforts God put forth in Israel for 



Importance of the Home Work. 73 

the salvation of the home field ! He told his people not to rest 
until religion was completely established among them; that, if any 
of the ungodly were left in the land, they would be pricks in their 
eyes and thorns in their side. The Saviour after his ascension 
sent especial word to the churches to " strengthen the things that 
remain." 

The Saracens were not the destroyers of Christianity, but God's 
avenging angels to remove the candlestick when the light had 
ceased to burn. Turkey and Palestine are hard fields to-day. It 
is difficult to relight these charred, decaying wicks after centuries 
of desolation. Austria is a hard field, and Italy and Spain. Must 
this withering blight ever follow the westward march of empire ? 
Has America no lessons to learn from the voice of God, and the 
fading glories of a Christian civilization in its ancient seats of 
power? Must we relinquish our base of operations for the regions 
beyond ? Shall it always be said that Christianity can conquer, 
but cannot hold the conquered territory ? Shall we turn from 
America to save China and Japan? In centuries to come, shall 
some Chinaman or Japanese visit the worn-out civilization of 
America, and attempt to lift it from sottish degradation? 

God is speaking to us to-day, by the voices of history, and by 
his spirit in the hearts of many of his children, to make America 
thoroughly Christian from ocean to ocean. He calls upon us to 
do this for our own sakes, for the sake of our missionaries in 
foreign lands, for the sake of the vast multitudes of heathendom, 
for the sake of the divine glory tarnished by the conquests of 
Satan on fields once radiant with the presence and power of God. 
Toward this land, our missionaries from Iowa in Micronesia, 
Europe, Asia, and Africa, are looking : they plead with us to be 
true to the trust committed to us as a nation. Brethren on hea- 
then shores, we bid you God-speed in your great and arduous 
work. With intense interest, we mark your advancing watch-fires ; 
but never for one moment can we admit that you have any more 
important work or heavier burden than is rolled upon us in saving 
this land for the central gem in the Saviour's crown. 
1878. 



74 Memoirs of yoseph W. Pickett. 

By request of the Executive Committee of the 
American Home Missionary Society, he made an ex- 
ploring tour to Colorado in July and August, 1874, 
visiting most of the settlements from Cheyenne and 
Laramie on the north to Del Norte and Trinidad on 
the south, and traversing extensive regions never be- 
fore visited by a Congregational minister. The follow- 
ing extracts are from his report to the society: — 

COLORADO: ITS HISTORY. 

With deep interest, I traced the history of this remarkable Ter- 
ritory, — its first exploration by the Spanish Captain Corando in 
1540; its cession to the United States in 1803, as part of the 
Louisiana purchase ; the expedition of Lieutenant Pike in 1806; 
of Colonel Long in 1820; of Captain Bonneville in 1832, immor- 
talized by Irving in his Rocky Mountain Travels j of Colonel 
Fremont in 1842; and, lastly, the cry of "gold" in 1858, which 
roused a nation's cupidity and covered the plains with caravans of 
fortune-seekers. Colorado was set off from Kansas and a territo- 
rial government established in 1861, embracing a region of moun- 
tains and plains about twice the size of New England. 

Description of Colorado : Its Resources. 

The eastern third is an inclined plane, raised by the same mighty 
uplift that piled the huge mountain masses. This comparatively 
level surface rises gradually toward the west, and impinges on the 
mountain barrier at nearly the same meridian for three hundred 
miles across the entire Territory. On the plains, within twenty 
miles of the base of the mountains, along the snow-fed rivers, 
and to some extent up the canons formed by these rivers, have 
sprung up the principal towns and settlements ; and here, with the 
exception of settlements on the large rivers and a few towns in 
the parks, will remain the bulk of the inhabitants. 



The Resources of Colorado. 75 

Agricultural interests are rapidly developing. But a compara- 
tively small portion of Colorado can now be tilled, on account of 
the scarcity of water for irrigation. Already, on some of the 
smaller streams, the limit of supply has been reached ; but along 
the larger streams much valuable land remains to be occupied. 
This limited supply of cultivable land creates a monopoly, which 
will make horticulture and agriculture exceedingly profitable. 
The process of irrigation is simple, the soil excellent, the crops 
large. There are vast parks in the mountains, whose capacity for 
agriculture has been exaggerated. Their elevation, with the diffi- 
culties of irrigation, will prevent extensive cultivation. 

Stock-raising has peculiar facilities. In midsummer, the hardy 
grasses, that more or less thickly cover the plains, dry up, retain- 
ing rich juices, the strength of which, from the dry atmosphere 
and absence of rain, remains through the winter, supplying food 
for numerous herds. There are at present half a million of cattle 
in the Territory, with a larger number of sheep, supplying the best 
of beef and mutton, with wool for manufacture. There is capac- 
ity for large increase in this branch of industry, though stock- 
raising may be limited to the vicinity of rivers, water having thus 
far been secured with difficulty on the plains. The mountain 
parks will probably be used for raising large herds to a more 
limited extent than some suppose, as they would need shelter and 
hay at times, grass growing too thin for cutting, except on bottom- 
lands or where irrigated. 

Mining will ahvays be an absorbing interest. At first, small 
towns sprung up as if by magic in the "placer" or "gulch" dis- 
tricts, some of which as speedily vanished, giving many the im- 
pression that there is nothing permanent in these mining regions. 
But gulch-mining has given place in most instances to quartz or 
lode mining ; the lodes of silver and gold growing richer as they 
descend, giving almost as much permanence to mining as to any 
other industry. New mines are continually discovered, especially 
in the San Juan country. 

Of coal deposits, seven thousand square miles have been dis- 
covered, with an annual yield of two hundred thousand tons. 



j6 Memoirs of Joseph W. Pickett. 

Some of the finest deposits are in the vicinity of Canon City, 
near a mountain of magnetic iron larger than the Iron Mountain 
of Missouri. Immense iron deposits have been found in other 
places. 

The lumber interests of Colorado need also to be mentioned. 
Pine, spruce, and fir trees grow abundantly in the mountains ; but 
the central region of the plains, known as "the Divide," is now 
yielding most of the pine lumber. The product last year was 
thirty million feet. There are also forty flouring-mills in opera- 
tion, which last year turned out six hundred thousand sacks of 
flour, probably unsurpassed in quality by any in the country. 

Colorado has attained great notoriety as a resort for invalids, 
and will be more and more sought after. Pleasure-seekers and 
lovers of the wonderful in nature will rear splendid mansions in 
her romantic parks and wild canons. Cities are rising in various 
parts of the Territory which compare favorably with those of like 
size in "the States." It is evident that the present inhabitants 
have " come to stay," and that Colorado is to develop a sure and 
healthy growth in population and in all branches of industry. A 
public school system has been adopted, which is as yet but par- 
tially established in the southern counties, controlled as they are 
by Mexican majorities, which are happily diminishing. 

Religious Condition of Colorado. 

Congregationalists came to the Territory in perhaps as large 
numbers as any other denomination ; but, with that lack of denom- 
inational instincts which has characterized so much of our West- 
ern work, entered other communions, and aided in building up 
other church polities. In 1863, the first Congregational Church 
was organized at Central City. The following year two more were 
formed, at Boulder and Denver. We now have eight churches, 
with two hundred members and five ministers. We find ourselves 
at this time the smallest of the tribes of Israel. While one or two 
of our churches are self-sustaining, the rest must depend to a con- 
siderable extent upon the Home Missionary Society. Look at 
some of the causes of this state of things : — 

1. Religion from the first has been in a very depressed state in 



Denom {nationalism . 7 7 

the Territory. Men came, under a gold excitement, with minds 
preoccupied. For a time there was no society. There were few 
families. Men gave loose rein to every worldly passion. Minis- 
ters were little cared for. In the hard life-struggle, benevolence, 
hospitality, and the kindred virtues of the older States, were almost 
forgotten. This apathy to spiritual things proved depressing to 
ministers, and it was not hard for them to persuade themselves 
that they might be more useful in places where larger congrega- 
tions could be secured with less privations. 

2. The denominational spirit has been strong. The great cen- 
tralized denominations have lavished large sums of money on 
communities almost indifferent to the gospel. The Episcopalians 
have some fifteen churches ; the Methodists, fifty preaching ap- 
pointments ; the Southern Methodists, some twelve churches ; the 
Presbyterians and Baptists, each about twenty. The Cumberland 
Presbyterians, the Reformed Episcopalians, and other denomina- 
tions have several churches. As a result, many small towns have 
been occupied by various denominations, rallying scarcely a dozen 
hearers each; while the mass of the people are in the drinking and 
gambling saloons, or at their business, on. the Sabbath as on 
secular days. It is easy to imagine the effect of this state of 
things on a New England minister, taught from childhood to cul- 
tivate a fraternal spirit toward all denominations. Looking upon 
these rival interests, he says that he cannot be a party to this de- 
nominational struggle, and leaves for some more congenial clime. 
This is much of the history of the past ten years. Our ministers 
felt that the field was occupied, and that in withdrawing they 
solved the problem of duty. Yet it is possible they had not. 
Congregational ministers who have been long in contact with this 
knotty problem are inclined to believe that it cannot thus be dis- 
posed of. Colorado is peopled with a sagacious, intelligent popu- 
lation, who are not to be brought to the sanctuary and to Christ 
by mere denominational zeal. 

When the "great expectations" awakened in the formation of 
new towns have subsided, and foreign funds have been withdrawn, 
and denominational pressure from abroad has somewhat abated, 



78 Memoirs of Joseph W. Pickett. 

the people will see their inability to support so many conflicting 
organizations, and will demand concentration to harmonize these 
conflicting interests. We have reason to expect that in these new 
adjustments a portion of these communities will turn toward the 
Congregational polity. 

Moreover, we may hope much from Colorado College, located 
at Colorado Springs. In the vicinity of this lovely spot is some 
of the most beautiful, wonderful, and sublime scenery in the Ter- 
ritory. Just beyond Fountain River lie Manitou and the " Garden 
of the Gods," with the vast mountain range close at hand, culmi- 
nating in Pike's Peak, whose summit is but fifteen miles away. 
Here will be the metropolis of the cultured and refined who visit 
this land. The town is being built under the auspices of a com- 
pany, who are liberal in their plans for the future. They have 
given twenty acres in the northern portion of the city for the site 
of the college. 

I have thus attempted to give a brief sketch of Colorado and 
its demands upon us. Our record has been one of humiliation 
thus far; but it is not too late to retrieve our fortunes, and not 
encroach on any other denomination. I need not speak of the 
sacrifices to be made. In that gospel which has raised up so 
many in great exigencies to face dangers and endure hardships, 
there is still ample power to equip men for glorious conquests. 
Never did I have my spirit so deeply stirred as in some of the 
remote mining towns in the southern portion of the Territory. 
Licentiousness, drunkenness, heaven-defying wickedness, are on 
every hand, with no Sabbath and no sanctuary. It is here that 
ministers and their families are needed, not to find good society, 
but to make it ; willing, like the Saviour, to throw their lives into 
this dark current, that they may purify it. Some tell us that the 
culture and refinement of Yale and Andover unfit men for this 
work ; but no man can have too much culture or refinement for 
even these semi-barbaric regions. 

In this tour, he found his funds exhausted at Trini- 
dad, an expected remittance not reaching him. In his 



An Unexpected "Remittance." 79 

Sunday morning walk, while reflecting upon the emer- 
gency and what he should do, lo ! something upon the 
ground attracted his attention, — a roll of greenbacks, 
amounting to sixty-five dollars. He reported the fact, 
advertised it in church and newspaper ; but no claim- 
ant ever appeared. 

In view of the importance of Colorado and the diffi- 
culties of that field, the Missionary Society, upon his 
return from this visitation, desired to transfer him 
thither ; but Iowa was too dear to him, and his con- 
victions that his duty was there were too strong for a 
change to be made. He wrote, October 19, 1874 : — 

The first effect of your letters was a real womanly crying-spell. 
You cannot realize how dear to me Iowa has become. Here is 
the grave of my wife ; here are my two children ; here are the 
churches for which I have labored and prayed ; here are my 
helpers with their families at Des Moines (I doubt whether 
any one else would be willing or able to aid them as I have, or to 
work successfully with them): here are the weak churches without 
pastors who look to my visitations, and the churches I have aided 
in organizing ; here is a State capable of sustaining a vast popula- 
tion, that I long to help in lifting into a life of sacrifice for Christ. 
Everything seems in working order. The pastors are in hearty 
co-operation with me, and welcome me to all their associations as 
one of their number. My helpers are out on the field hard at 
work. All this I am asked to leave, for a field that offers nothing 
but continual hardships, and that will be occupied by a sparse, 
scattered, and, I might say in the language of Scripture, "peeled " 
people. I have seen enough of the Rocky Mountain region to 
know that there will be continual disappointment to many of the 
settlers. Its high and arid plains are the home of the locust- 
plague. Its rivers disappoint by the very limited supply of water. 



80 Memoirs of Joseph W. Pickett. 

Its climate is depressing and debilitating to many. As to the 
churches, there will be no sudden development. It would be folly 
to press into towns full of strong churches. 

And yet, with all this, there is work to be done there ; and, if we 
have any part in this inheritance, it is time we were up and doing. 
I have heard many voices urging me to go ; but one more, the 
Divine, is needed. My soul has been going up in earnest petition 
to the great Head of the Church. He must tell me plainly before 
I can leave a field which I had promised myself I could live and 
die in. 

November 4, 1874. — I have wrestled in prayer over the problem 
of changing my field of labor, and the thought that there might be 
greater sacrifice in going to Colorado and that Christ might be 
more honored had a kind of fascination for me ; but, the more 
I have studied and examined, the more am I convinced that my 
most important work in Iowa is not yet done. Every one with 
whom I have conversed felt that it would be a sad waste for me 
to leave this field. I have tried to impress upon ministers the 
importance of remaining where they have gained position and in- 
fluence. I have told the churches, when speaking of my remain- 
ing unmarried, that I was wedded to Southern Iowa. I see every 
year new methods by which more can be accomplished. There 
is danger that Iowa will become selfish, worldly, luxurious, and 
expend her wealth in pride and vanity. I cannot then see it my 
duty to go to Colorado. I believe I can do more for Christ and 
the souls of men by remaining where I am. 

Four years later, early in 1878, the Missionary Soci- 
ety, with a view of enlarging its work in the " New 
West," determined to reduce its expenditures in Iowa, 
and asked Mr. Pickett to take the superintendence of 
the mountain department. He wrote : — 

The proposition was first received with great revulsion of feel- 
ing, as my attachment to the Iowa churches had become so 
strong, and Providence had thrown open such a wide field of use- 



Asked to go to Colorado. 81 

fulness, that I had come to feel that I wished to live and die on 
this field. When entering the State, I have often fallen upon my 
knees to pray for it. Many hours have I spent alone in the wild 
forests on the banks of the Missouri, looking eastward, and pray- 
ing for Iowa. It seemed to me that God was saying, " Unto thee 
have I given this land." I have attempted to secure ministers 
who would give their lives to Iowa. I have told them I cannot 
see how men can change from State to State. I have attempted 
to impress upon new-comers the power of an established reputa- 
tion, and advised them to lay broad plans to secure it. I have 
said that with such a reputation no man can afford to change his 
location. I have spent this year in study and plans of labor for 
years to come. Now you ask me to leave. I have no home tie to 
hold me, only an office. But what of the little churches, many of 
them pastorless, to which I have said, I will care for you, — and 
the colleges I had expected to help ? I cannot yet gain the con- 
sent of my mind that my sphere is not here ; but a shadow begins 
to fall between me and this cherished field. 

A little later, while with his sons at St. Louis, visit- 
ing his mother and sister, on his way to the National 
Sunday School Convention at Atlanta, to which he had 
been appointed a delegate by the Sunday School Con- 
vention of Iowa, a request came from the officers of 
the Home Missionary Society that he would proceed 
at once to Colorado. The necessity was now upon 
him for an immediate decision. "This letter,'' he said 
to his brother-in-law, in whose office he received it, 
"may change my whole life plans." To the inquiry 
what he would do, he answered : " I cannot say yet. I 
do not see my way clear. I will go to the house, and 
think further about it. I must ask God to guide me. I 
shall do what he directs." He went to the house, told 



82 Memoirs of Joseph W. Pickett. 

his mother, and in a retired room spent an hour in 
thought and prayer, with a map of the West spread out 
before him. Coming out, his eye bright and his face 
lighted with a smile, he said : " It is settled. I go to 
Colorado. My trip to Atlanta must be given up. I 
shall return to Des Moines at once, and prepare for 
removal. ,, His diary contains the following record: — 

April 13, 1878, St. Louis. — With strong crying and tears, in 
view of time and eternity, with God as my helper, have decided 
to enter upon the Superintendency of the Rocky Mountain De- 
partment of Home Missions. God has promised to go up with 
me. I have invoked the Spirit which guided Paul to guide me. 

From that hour, he did not hesitate, but prepared at 
once for his new work. Fie was married at Wilton, 
Iowa, April 18, 1878, to Mrs. Sybil B. Rider. They 
had long shared each other's confidence and esteem, 
and he was happy and blest in his new home. In a 
farewell to his brethren, he said : — 

I leave not a single enemy. From first to last, I have had the 
hearty co-operation of every minister. I want to tell them how 
much their sympathy has helped and cheered me, and how much 
their forbearance, where there were doubtless many mistakes, has 
lightened the load of arduous labor. Nine years of close alliance 
with some of the best Christian workers have made impressions 
never to be effaced. These have been years of great prosperity, 
and our relative gain in the State has been greater than that of 
any other denomination. 

There are eight words I hope to bear with me as a talisman in 
scaling mountains and roaming the trackless deserts: — 

" Who loved me, and gave himself for me." 
With these words, I hope to be able to say with Augustine : — 
" Grant what thou askest, then ask what thou wilt." 
"Da qtiod jubesy et juba quod vis" 



His Life in Des Moines. 83 

With a farewell whose echo will long sound in my heart, I leave 
you for that vast and needy region, whose mountains of gold and 
silver can never satisfy the wants of the human soul. 1 ask your 
prayers that Christ may be so presented as to raise up many 
churches, which shall be worthy successors of those among the 
hills of New England, which have wrought so mightily for free- 
dom and righteousness in this land. It will not be an irksome 
duty to remember you in prayer, that God may enable you to lay 
foundations here for great conquests for Christ in the ages to 
come. 

At the annual meeting of the Iowa Home Mission- 
ary Society, held at Tabor, May 31, 1878, his brethren 
recorded their sense of his devoted and self-denying 
labors in Iowa, his warm-hearted sympathy and broth- 
erly helpfulness to the cause of Christ at large, and 
their prayers that the Lord would use his experience, 
power, and practical energy for great results in his new 
field. The loss of Southern Iowa, they said, is the 
gain of Colorado. 

We are indebted to his pastor at Des Moines for the 
following account of his life there : — 

Corning to Des Moines in the fall of 1871, I met Brother 
Pickett. It was the first of our real acquaintance, though we had 
met as students at Andover. Not having been classmates, how- 
ever, we had barely known each other. But the fact that we had 
been at the same school at the same time tended to bring us at 
once together. Our fellowship was cordial and unbroken. 

He was a man easy to know, always approachable, with a warm 
and living interest in the local pastoral work as well as in his own 
extended field. 

To one observing him from the outside, his Des Moines life 
must have given the impression of a loneliness which called 



84 Memoirs of Joseph W. Pickett, 

for profound sympathy. For himself, as fully as any man I ever 
knew, he could adopt the words of Jesus : " I am not alone, for 
the Father is with me." 

He was no recluse, but he was peculiarly by himself. The two 
boys, so cherished in his paternal heart, were at Mount Pleasant; 
and he had nothing that answered to the home life of those happy 
years when his care was for one limited field. In Des Moines, 
Southern Iowa was his parish, and one place in it almost as much 
his home as another. 

It was not his habit to thrust himself upon others for society. 
He rested himself by solitary rambles in the woods and along the 
river. There was to him a joy and sympathy in nature. He was 
among the first to know that the wild flowers had opened, and to 
welcome their coming. He knew the quiet nooks where beauty 
was fairest, and the points where the landscape broadened out 
into varied and inspiring views. It was this face to face commun- 
ion with God in nature that helped him to endure so well the 
strain his work imposed. 

There were homes in the city where he was always welcome, 
and where now and then he gave himself the pleasure of a social 
hour. But he was little given to the quest of enjoyment, as such. 
His time was occupied to the full. His correspondence, accumu- 
lating during his absences, his reports to the parent society, which 
he prepared with much care, and his sermons, addresses, and arti- 
cles, gave him unremitting employment through more hours of 
labor than most of his ministerial brethren know. Late into the 
nights, his lighted window told the story of the busy, prayerful 
man working within. His meals were often taken irregularly, 
according to the exigencies of his work. Matters, which perhaps 
might have been adjusted by correspondence, received his per- 
sonal attention. Often he would not wait to write letters and 
look for answers, but, binding on his sandals, would go to see 
with his own eyes, and help with his presence and voice and 
purse. So he was always going, — out on the night trains, on the 
slow-moving freight-cars, in farmers' wagons, in any way by which 
he could make a point directly, with the least consideration for 
himself. 



His Love of Children. 85 

When in town, he was careful to attend the social meetings 
of Plymouth Church, and was an earnest but unobtrusive helper. 
No soul was more susceptible to gracious currents of spiritual 
influence, no eye keener to detect signs of declension or advance. 
None who used to hear his voice will soon forget his deep and 
tender solicitude for the kingdom of the Master, and for personal 
anointing. 

One of his loving, enthusiastic labors was his paper, — that 
annual visitor to the churches, so well remembered and so highly 
prized. To the churches of his superintendence, it was a messen- 
ger of cheer, a manual of direction, a chapter of encouragement 
and inspiration. To the self-sustaining churches, it was a rallying 
call. To our kindred in the faith throughout the land, it was a 
cry out of the Macedonia of the West for that sympathy and 
co-operation by which we must become " one army of the living 
God." Though emanating from a home missionary superintend- 
ent, it took in the whole field of Christian work. He would allow 
no church to which he ministered in the name of the Home Mis- 
sionary Society to be satisfied always to receive, or to curtail 
enterprise under the narrow plea that " charity begins at home." 
He cared assiduously for this especial field, but never conceived 
of it as more than a part of that greater field, the world. No man 
was more alive to the interests of the American Board or the 
American Missionary Association, though the home field assumed 
larger proportions with him than with some specialists in religious 
enterprises. 

He enjoyed the happiness of children, and the cheer of playful, 
musical family circles. In summer, he gave himself a little season 
of relief. Then his boys were with him. He interested himself 
in discriminating ways for their improvement, stimulating them in 
habits of observation and in healthful exercise. They shared his 
walks in the woods. He owned a boat, which often carried upon 
the river a joyous load of children besides his own. He unbent 
himself gracefully to invigorating boyish sports, carrying into 
them the eagerness and fire that marked his professional toil. 
He strove to cultivate in his boys a spirit of Christian manliness, 

5 



86 Memoirs of Joseph W. Pickett. 

and to possess their minds with a pure and noble ideal of life. 
They accompanied him in journeys to his birthplace, to the 
Centennial Exposition, to scenes of natural beauty and places 
of historic interest, in which one aim prevailed, — to educate them 
to self-reliance and worthy living. 

So the years ran on, until he was taken up from Iowa, where he 
had become so firmly rooted, and planted in the remoter West. 
Full of enthusiasm for his new work and of joy in the thought of 
a reconstructed home, he took his leave of us. It was an inspira- 
tion to meet him then, and to feel that we were giving such an 
experienced, devoted worker to the regions beyond. To us in 
Des Moines, it was a personal loss. We knew there went from us 
a man consecrated in every power and purpose to the work of 
Christ. The fragrance of his life is with us, and the dear remem- 
brance of his name. 

A. L. Frisbie. 



CHAPTER IV. 

SUPERINTENDENT AND GENERAL MISSIONARY IN THE 
ROCKY MOUNTAINS. 

li/TR, PICKETT entered his field at Cheyenne, Wyo- 
ming Territory, May I, 1878. He met a cordial 
reception from the members of the Colorado Associa- 
tion, then in session at that place, and won their 
confidence and love. He established his home at 
Colorado Springs, and proceeded to his work. He 
first gave himself to the San Juan region, afterwards 
to the Black Hills in Dakota, and finally to Leadville. 
His reports and letters give a graphic view of his 
labors. 

A SABBATH IN SOUTH PUEBLO. 

In my first missionary trip, I visited South Pueblo. The mesa 
on which the town is built has much improved since my visit four 
years ago. The trees, then recently planted along the irrigating 
ditches, have grown rapidly, and, with the lawns of clover and 
blue-grass, look exceedingly homelike. The two houses of wor- 
ship, Northern and Southern Methodist, are still uncompleted, as 
in 1874. I found there was no regular preaching of any kind. I 
visited from house to house on Saturday evening, inviting to the 
Sabbath service, continuing my calls till after dark. At one house, 
I found, to my surprise, an old Iowa friend, who received me with 
great cordiality. 



88 Memoirs of yoseph W. Pickett. 

The Sabbath dawned without a cloud, with an atmosphere of 
delicious freshness. With Bible in hand, I walked out on the 
mesa for preparation for the services of the day. Standing on 
a gentle elevation, I looked westward upon a scene of surpassing 
beauty and grandeur. Pueblo stands at the base of a vast amphi- 
theatre. To the north is Pike's Peak, standing usher at the gate- 
way of the mountains, looking over the plains. With a gradual 
curve to the south-west, the mountains sweep around Canon City, 
and merge into the Greenhorn Range. Still further stretch away 
the castellated peaks of the Sangre de Christo ; while to the south, 
covered with snow far down their sides, rise the twin summits of 
the Spanish Peaks, blazing like diamonds in the southern sky. 
Most fittingly, my Bible opened to the 89th Psalm, verses n, 12, 
13, and to the 90th Psalm. Grander than Tabor and Hermon will 
this region be, if God will write his name upon it. 

The morning was a fitting preparation for the labors of the day. 
A large congregation welcomed me at the Southern Methodist 
church, entering with zest into the services. In the evening, a 
still larger congregation filled the church. With many kind 
expressions at the close of service, I was invited to repeat my 
visit. While passing from the church, a woman accosted me 
with the question, " Why did you not take a collection with such 
an audience ? " and shook hands. As she withdrew her hand, I 
felt something in my palm, which I found on coming to the light 
was a dollar bill, which I enclose as the first-fruits unto God from 
my new field. May it be an earnest of those fruits which shall 
shake like Lebanon in years to come ! 

May 26, 1878. 

On the last day of May, he started on a tour of 
exploration, going over the Denver and Rio Grande 
Railroad, through the Veta Pass, at a higher elevation 
than any other railroad had then attained in North 
America, to San Luis Park. At Garland City, he pur- 
chased a pony for forty-seven dollars and a half, and 



In San Luis Park. 89 

rode to Alamosa on the Rio Grande, and to the ro- 
mantic Mexican town of Conejos, at the southern 
extremity of the Park. From this point, he passed 
two hundred miles westward, through a continuous 
mountain range, to Animas City in South-western Col- 
orado. He then went through the wild gorge of the 
Animas, a distance of some fifty miles, to Silverton, the 
county seat of San Juan County, where he spent four 
weeks in hard missionary labor. Returning by a north- 
ern route over the mountains, the trail being then open, 
he reached Colorado Springs July 12. 

Alamosa, June 3, 1878. — My thirty-five miles' ride through San 
Luis Park was a hard one. The wind blew wildly all day right in 
my face. I reached the left bank of the Rio Grande as the sun 
was setting behind the Sierra Madre, or Mother Range, as the 
great central range is called. All day Mount Blanco and the 
Sangre de Christo Mountains rose before me at my right, through 
which I passed on the cars the day before. I crossed on the 
ferry to the town, which has sprung up almost in a night, and has 
about eighty rough-looking houses and saloons, with twelve fami- 
lies and two hundred inhabitants, wholly given to idolatry. It is 
7 A.M. I start in a few minutes for Conejos. 

12 M. — I am still in San Luis Park, going south over a level 
plain. Not a house since I left Alamosa. Mountains fill the hori- 
zon on every side. Grateful, fleecy clouds come between me and 
the sun. Mount Blanco's head is covered with cloud upon cloud, 
like steps up to heaven. To the south is Round Mountain, toward 
which Conejos is in a direct line. 

June 4. — My little pony took me safely across Conejos River 
last evening. Leaving Conejos at 9 A.M., and passing up on the 
banks of the river about eight miles, I began to ascend the moun- 
tains. The trees are yellow pine and aspen, mostly. Flowers are 
in bloom and strawberries in blossom. The weather is cold, with 



90 Memoirs of yoseph W. Pickett. 

snow for two hours, but not remaining on the ground. I met a 
drove of sheep, — many thousands, — with lambs and some goats, 
driven by three Spaniards, — a beautiful sight. 

6 P.M. — The roads are fearfully slippery, mountains precipi- 
tous. Three miles back, I struck a fresh wagon-track on the 
snow, two wagons with three yoke of oxen each, and drivers by 
their side. They have two or three tons to a wagon. In places, 
they put on the six teams to pull one wagon up. I told them I 
must camp with them. We came to a cabin with a large stone 
chimney. I borrowed matches, and have a rousing fire. 

June 5. — The morning has broken clear and beautiful ; no wind, 
and but little snow. I slept on the ground, with an ox-yoke for my 
pillow. The freighters gave me two blankets. I rose at eleven, 
when I could not sleep for the cold, gathered together the few 
coals, and started a good fire. I warmed till twelve ; then slept 
two hours more, when I chopped more wood, built another fire, and 
slept two hours more. It is now past five. The freighters have 
not stirred all night. A beautiful creek murmurs near by, which 
has a deep, wild canon. The robins ! their voices echo from every 
mountain side. I think the musicians among them have made up 
a mountain party. 

Last night, the freighters baked good bread in a large kettle, 
fried ham in a skillet, made nice tea, and had syrup. They under- 
stand their business. I must now tell them I have the teakettle 
on, and the fire is ready for cooking. An old magpie is walking 
in front of the tent, within a few feet of me, trying to steal 
something. 

9 A.M. — I am sitting on a mass of winter snow, under a clump 
of pines in rich foliage. The robins are warbling, the cowslips in 
full bloom ; no sand, but luxuriant soil. I started a little before 
seven, passing up this lovely canon, five hundred feet above the 
river, with thousands of feet still above me. Such fantastic rocks, 
— likenesses of walruses, elephants, grizzlies, and a perfect bust of 
Socrates ! And such grass ! Look at pony, how he feasts beside 
the cowslips ! And the fragrance of the mountain air ! Perhaps 



Adventures by the Way. 91 

there will be a railroad here before ten years, and then the world 
will see its beauty and grandeur. 

9.30 A.M. — I am now on the centre of the vertebra of the con- 
tinent. At my feet, the waters flow east and west. For the first 
time, the vast western world breaks upon me, as to Balboa. 

1 P.M. — Descending the precipitous banks of the Chama, I 
have left the regions of early spring. Here the woods are in full 
leaf. Some of the way, the valley is a mile or two wide, and 
fringed with trees far up the mountain. The waters are roaring 
and dashing, just as they " come down at Lodore." In all my 
enjoyment of natural scenery, I never had so much crowded into 
one day. If the seasons were two months longer, and a little 
warmer, this would be a garden spot. The soil is unsurpassed, 
very different from the barren sands of San Luis Park. Here are 
little cherry-trees full of blossom-buds. 

I overtook a man half a mile back, and asked if he had anything 
to eat. He was dressing a sheep. He said he would camp half 
a mile ahead, and give me some dinner. He has come up with 
his two boys, and herd of horses and cattle. He is to take the 
11 cut off " to Pagosa Springs. So I will keep with him, as he has 
a tent and covered wagon. 

June 6. — A pot-pie for supper, and another good meal this 
morning! We reached the "cut off" last night; but a flock of 
sheep had crossed and recrossed there, so that it was impossible 
to find a road. 

I left my friends before seven o'clock this morning, and, after 
wandering more than an hour, crossed the boiling waters of the 
Chama, and at last struck the dimmest road imaginable. I saw 
a Mexican herding sheep, who motioned to me from the hillside 
where he had his flock. I waited for him to come up. He bowed, 
and we shook hands. I could not understand a word but " to- 
bacco." I shook my head, and showed my teeth, to let him see 
I did not use it. 

At 4 P.M., I stopped to bait pony. I tried to eat, but was not 
hungry. I pressed on, and at length my heart leaped at the sight 



92 Memoirs of yoseph W. Pickett. 

of two freighters' wagons coming down into the valley. They 
said I had saved thirty miles by this " cut off." They had bought 
a sheep of a Mexican for three plugs of tobacco, costing twenty- 
five cents. We camped at the first water, built a great fire, and 
had a good supper. 

June 7. — I left my kind friends before eight o'clock, passed 
down, down, and over another swiftly flowing river, and at 3 P.M. 
reached Pagosa Springs. Here is a good bridge over the San 
Juan. There are no high mountains in the vicinity, but the bluffs 
are about a mile apart. I strolled up the east side of the river 
a mile to the springs. In the distance, I saw what seemed a log 
heap burning, from the smoke ; and, walking on, heard the rustling, 
gurgling sound of the vast cauldron. Imagine a nearly circular 
body of water, about forty feet across, boiling up a steel blue 
through the centre and around the edge. You can look down 
some twenty feet in the centre. A film seems formed, but the 
waters are perfectly pure, with a strong odor of sulphur and soda. 
No one dares to get into the central chasm. The water would blis- 
ter, or boil an egg. But about the edge there are sink-holes, three 
or four feet deep, in which you may let the water, so as to have it 
cooler. For a space of forty rods square, the rocks seem perfo- 
rated with holes, through which the waters flow in all directions. 
A small brook pours into the San Juan from a dozen channels. 
Puffs of steam rise over almost all the ground. What a sanita- 
rium ! It would bathe the nation, if all the water was utilized. 

Here come two Utes, with bows and arrows, to see me write. 
They bathe with their pappooses nearly all the time. 

June 8. — I rose early, and walked along the beautiful banks of 
the river. The tents of the Ute Indians were stretched along the 
bluffs on the opposite side of the river, looking very romantic, 
their ponies feeding, and their flocks of sheep and goats near by. 
The springs sent up a dense steam in the cool morning air. The 
Warm Springs in North Carolina do not compare with these. 
The government retains the ownership, one mile square. There 



Guest of Indians and "Freighters," 93 

are no accommodations whatever. I had a charming bath, though 
my pit-hole was most too hot. 

I had a nice breakfast, — ham and eggs, goat's milk, furnished 
by the Indians. These mountaineers will not take a cent for any- 
thing. When I went to catch my pony, I saw a man fishing. He 
drew out the largest mountain trout I ever saw, a speckled beauty, 
of over two pounds, that made my mouth water. 

Now I am in another of the smiling valleys, sweet as the fields 
of Paradise, a green lawn, uncropt, bordered with hills covered 
with yellow pines, and above. all the deep blue sky, with great 
white rolling clouds. Pony walks about, monarch of all this 
wealth of grass. I laugh, when I think that at first I dared not 
let go his rope, for fear he would run away. . . . Had dinner with 
some freighters, of mutton and warm bread. At six, reached the 
Rio Piedra, a lovely stream, breaking through the wild mountains. 
I crossed the bridge, and rode up to a log cabin, without floor, 
window, or door ; and here was a woman, the first I had seen since 
leaving Conejos, save the Ute squaws. Her husband has taken 
a claim of one hundred and sixty acres, reaching to the Ute reser- 
vation south of us. He has planted wheat, oats, potatoes, and has 
some stock. They are Danes, have a Danish Bible. 

June 9. — I sit by this sparkling river, and, under the grand old 
pine-trees, amid the awful grandeur of the mountains, which shut 
in this valley, — not more than forty rods wide, — have a precious 
Sabbath of meditation and rest. 

Jicne 10. — I left the quiet home of Mr. Peterson this morning. 
My ride has been up and down the mountains all the way. I have 
stopped in a park, surrounded with large pines, under one of which 
I am resting, while pony takes to the luxuriant grass. The robins 
are warbling, as usual. The Rocky Mountains are a vast home for 
this most delightful of American birds. I reach the Pinas River 
to-day, and to-morrow Las Animas. 

Jun*e 11. — I went to Animas, — a town of some fifty raw-looking 
houses, — hoping to organize a church ; but, finding the field occu- 



94 Memoirs of Joseph W. Pickett. 

pied by a Presbyterian minister, I bade him God-speed, and left 
immediately. Learning also that Lake City and Ouray were 
supplied, which I had in mind, I shall not go there. 

June 12. — I stopped for dinner with some freighters, to whom 
I had shown a kindness. They had a loaded wagon and a span 
of mules. One man stood with the lines and whip, and the other 
with a club. They ran the mules half-way up the hill, pounding 
every step. Then the mules would stop, and the wagon would 
run back to the foot of the hill. This they tried over several 
times, till the mules were discouraged. I was a little provoked, 
and said, "You are not working it right, pushing the mules so 
rapidly. Take it more slowly." But the driver said, " You must 
rush them, or they will not go at all." Now I said, "You drive, 
and we will push." We got half-way up. The mules stopped. I 
clapped a great stone under the hind wheel, and held the wagon. 
The mules rested a few moments, and then took the load to 
the top. 

I spent the night with Lewis Carson. He has a nice little farm 
in the valley, keeps fifteen cows, sells his butter at fifty cents 
a pound. All kinds of vegetables find a ready market in the 
mining camps. A short time since, Mr. Carson killed a black 
bear. A neighbors boy reported an old bear, with two cubs, on 
the mountain-side. He took his rifle, went up within shooting 
range, and put a ball right through it. The old bear did not die 
immediately, but stood upon its hind legs, walking around to see 
what could be seen, and looked wicked. The bear started after 
Mr. Carson. The dog pitched in. The bear started to run, and 
went nearly to the top of a large pine-tree. It then sickened, and 
soon fell off. I saw the skin : it was beautiful. The hunters did 
not dare to look to the cubs while the old one was living, so these 
beauties got away. 

Jioie 13. — Alone in a quiet little park on the Animas, fifteen 
miles from Silverton. Around me are the lofty summits, cbvered 
with perpetual snow, white and pure. The music of the dashing, 



Silver ton. 95 

thundering Animas fills the valley. This morning has revealed 
the most wild and rugged scenery I have yet witnessed, but not 
the most beautiful. The Needle Mountain, a sharp peak of solid 
rock, too sharp for snow to rest on near the summit, is right be- 
fore me, well known for its choice silver. How grandly the great 
clouds roll above it in this wonderful azure ! 

Silver ton, June 14. — Here at last! After writing yesterday, I 
moved slowly on. Eight miles from town, the wagon-road stopped. 
Then came such a trail, — rocks, rocks! Sometimes I clung to the 
mountain-side, fearful pony would make a misstep, and go to the 
bottom. Do not fear for me. I walk in such places. I reached 
here at 8.30 P.M., having been on the road since before seven in 
the morning, — so long coming twenty-eight and a half miles. The 
fading light of lingering day was silvering the snow upon the 
mountains, the stars we're shining, and the moon pouring a flood 
of light into the valley, as I entered the town. 

At the hotel, the landlord said he would take my horse to a 
stable. I said I would go along, and found there was not a morsel 
of hay in town. Fed him four quarts of corn, and turned him out 
on the commons, which are very poor picking. I brought him in 
this morning, gave him another four quarts, and turned him out 
again. Only a dollar and a half for a peck of corn ! 

The field seems open. There is no religious organization or 
Sunday-school. The town is on the banks of this remarkable 
Animas River, has two hundred buildings of rough boards and 
logs. One or two fronts are painted. Mines are in every direction 
on the mountain-sides. Snow in the ravines comes clear down to 
the level space on which the town is located. 

June 16. — It was snowing hard this morning; snow several 
inches deep. Soon it began to melt ; the streets almost impassable. 
I went out to the suburbs for the key to the school-house. There 
were no kindlings to build a fire, but got some at a house near by. 
A dozen were present; three women. We had excellent singing. 

In the afternoon, I walked up the mountain-side to a quiet re- 



g6 Memoirs of Joseph W. Pickett. 

treat beneath some fir-trees, and poured forth my soul in prayer 
for this city. I recalled one after another of the promises, and my 
soul was refreshed. I came down, walked through town, stopped 
where there were crowds in front of several gambling saloons, and 
asked them to church in the evening. I remembered what a time 
I had with the lights at Pueblo. So I went to the school-house, 
built a fire, borrowed the oil-can and shears at my boarding-place, 
trimmed the lamps, and had all ready for evening. The snow was 
now gone, and the streets almost dry. I went over a little before 
eight o'clock. No one there yet ; but soon^they came pouring in. 
Benches were extemporized and brought in ; but all could not be 
accommodated. After preaching, I told them of my coming to the 
State, of my object, of my anxiety for this community, and of a 
friend who had just finished his studies at Yale Theological Semi- 
nary, and who, I thought, would like to give his life to the work of 
Christ here. I also spoke of the importance of a reading-room. 
I asked for an expression, a showing of hands, from those who 
wished me to send for Mr. Roberts ; and nearly every one voted 
for his coming. I appointed a prayer-meeting and a meeting for 
organizing a Sabbath-school. A church cannot now be organized 
to advantage. There are a few persons of various denominations. 
A minister must cement the elements : then they will be ready to 
organize. 

June 17. — I was called to attend the funeral of a professional 
gambler. He was gambling Thursday. The next day he was 
found in a small stream in the mountains, with severe cuts in his 
head ; the first death by violence in this place. The gamblers 
bought a coffin for him, and were the pall-bearers. We buried 
him in a romantic place. The river sparkled by us, and the great 
mountains seemed to bare their heads over our wayward and sin- 
ful race. 

June 18. — Come with me in my walk before breakfast up Anvil 
Mountain. Right back of the house, we are up a hundred feet. 
It was steep ! Stop on this plateau. Look into what was once 



Anvil and Haze I ton Mountain. 97 

Baker's Park, now Silverton, at our feet ; and on the other side, 
half a mile away, the Animas. Beyond rise abruptly the majestic 
mountains. A little way up is timber line, and then awful rugged- 
ness, snow and rock. How the morning sun pours into this side- 
hill ! Look at the aspens, — see their fresh leaves. In ten minutes, 
we can walk up to where they are just budding. See the delicate 
flowers, — here a little fern, and there a strawberry in full bloom ; 
yes, a number of them among these rough rocks. Look at those 
chipmuks, such as we used to see in childhood in Ohio. How 
they play "amid the rocks ! A dozen are in plain sight. And the 
robins, — we thank God that they are here to make it so home- 
like. How sweetly they fill this sparkling air with melody ! But 
up we go, and pause beneath the dark pine. Here we stop at this 
great stone, my altar of prayer. I pray for loved ones, for this 
city, for the gamblers, for all ; then, from these lofty heights, I 
pray for my field, for Iowa, for our nation and the world, that 
Christ's kingdom may come. But the great heights still tower 
far above us, and we must go down. 

I went three miles to visit the miners on Hazelton Mountain, — 
one of the richest silver mines in the vicinity, — passed up the 
Animas, and took a trail almost to the summit. The first mine I 
entered was the Aspen. The foreman lit a candle and took me 
into the shaft, which runs straight into the side of the mountain. 
We went on and on, many hundred feet, and came to the men, who 
were following a bright vein of silver-bearing rock, about two 
inches thick, in the solid granita. They were working, clinging to 
that little vein. I had a pleasant chat with them. They have no 
religious privileges. Plans are running through my mind of a 
reading-room in town, and of gathering papers to send out in 
packages to the mining camps every week. 

June 22. — From my door, looking eastward, the vast Hazelton 
Mountain rises before me, covered with snow, with a strip of deep 
blue sky; above, a pure white cloud stands ,out from the deep 
blue, — and all so near ! Each look is an inspiration. You can 
almost touch these mountains, covered with trees to the timber 



98 Me7noirs of yoseph W. Pickett. 

line. They are only half a mile away, so that you can see every 
limb and leaf almost. The weather is superb. I expected, with 
snow on the mountains, and some drifts not yet gone, I should be 
very chilly, but not at all. Walked to Pickett's Hill this afternoon, 
and studied on my sermons. I saw from the hill the mail coming 
on a mule ; mail-bags piled high, with the carrier on a horse be- 
hind. You would laugh to see these trains of donkeys, now loaded 
with dry-goods boxes till you cannot see mule, now a hardware 
merchant with stoves, now with ladies' large trunks. The patient 
things'! We could do little in the mountains without them. 

June 23. — Preached, and organized a Sunday-school, and lect- 
ured on the two books, Nature and Revelation. 

June 27. — Last night I started the fire at the school-house for 
prayer-meeting ; took over lamps, and, with all comfortable, had 
an excellent meeting. Went up Anvil Mountain this morning to 
the summit, and had a good wholesome day in the silence of the 
fir forest. Read Deuteronomy nearly through amid these scenes of 
awful grandeur. 

June 29. — A white frost every night ; but the weather continues 
magnificent. No winds in this quiet retreat, not a particle of dust. 
I see a growing interest in spiritual things. Made pleasant calls 
all the afternoon, yesterday. Had talks with Catholics and 
infidels, and was always treated respectfully. I saw one miner 
wipe the tears from his eyes with his great, rough hand, as I talked 
with him. 

June 30. — The Sabbath dawned beautifully. I built a fire for 
church early. We had a house full. At night, I got more seats ; 
but the crowd pressed in, packing every part of the house. 

July 7. — Nearly every child in town in the Sunday-school. 
The gamblers of the Jockey Club brought me fifty-three dollars to 
purchase a Sunday-school library, — money left from the festivities 
of the Fourth. 



Importance of Christian Union. 99 

Mr. Pickett regarded his first efforts in planting 
religious institutions in his new field with peculiar 
interest, especially as a test of his cherished plan for 
uniting persons of different denominations in new 
towns in one organization. It is obviously impracti- 
cable to sustain several denominational organizations 
in a small town far separated from other communities. 
Division in such circumstances is weakness and dis- 
honor. By the congregational idea of gathering the 
whole Christian element in one church, he hoped to 
solve a difficult problem in the evangelization of our 
country, and raise up churches to support their own 
religious institutions. To sustain churches of the 
various denominations in the smaller towns and mining 
camps would impose a continual drain upon Eastern 
churches, and be disastrous to the communities them- 
selves. Hence, he asked Christians of all names in 
these places to unite on a simple, evangelical . basis, 
upon which all could agree, and to regulate their own 
affairs, free from extraneous control. He promised 
them the hearty sympathy and aid of the Congrega- 
tional Churches of our country, who, he told them, 
"would rejoice more in seeing these communities walk- 
ing in the freedom of the gospel than in the possession 
of all ecclesiastical power over them. We have no 
peculiar body of men or peculiar form of creed or large 
establishments of vested interests to tighten the bands 
of ecclesiastical control, but a form of government, and 
a simple evangelical faith, which place in one brother- 
hood all of Christ's followers, leaving great freedom 
for wide and varied co-operation, " 



ioo Memoirs of yoseph W. Pickett. 

In accordance with the request of the people, he 
procured ministers for South Pueblo and Silverton, 
who at once entered upon their work. The Arkansas 
Valley and the new camp at Leadville now called for 
his labors, and he wanted to go thither ; but, in view of 
the great destitution in 

THE BLACK HILLS, 

he went immediately to a survey of that field. Taking 
a coach at Cheyenne, on the Union Pacific Railroad, he 
travelled, almost due north, some three hundred miles, 
to Deadwood. Two hundred miles of the journey were 
across vast and romantic plains, with here and there 
rugged rocks and bluffs worn into fantastic shapes. 
The last hundred miles are mainly through the Hills, 
almost to their northern extremity. To the eastward, 
the plains stretch several hundred miles to the Missouri 
River, on the north beyond Bismarck, and on the west 
to the Big Horn Mountains. 

From out this vast plain has risen, apparently by 
a single convulsion of nature, the Black Hills, con- 
sisting of igneous and metamorphic rocks, thrown up 
almost perpendicularly, forming a mineral belt, some 
twenty miles wide and eighty miles in length, contain- 
ing deposits of gold and silver. The country consists 
of a succession of romantic hills and valleys, covered 
with dense forests of yellow pine, which give the Hills 
their dark hue and name. In the valleys are deciduous 
trees, — such as ash, elm, iron-wood, and oak, — and in 
many places a profusion of flowers. Here were gath- 



Among Robbers. IOI 

ered some twenty thousand people, the centre of popu- 
lation being near the northern boundary, in the vicinity 
of Deadwood. Here, gulch-mining was begun in 1874 ; 
and a town has risen, full of business enterprise. 

From a survey of the field, Mr. Pickett was deeply 
impressed with its importance. On his return, being 
detained by high water at Jenney's Stockade, July 24, 
he devoted the day to prayer for the Hills, when the 
work that he was to do there came to his mind in vivid 
and distinct outline, so that the accomplishment of it 
scarcely made the facts clearer than they then appeared 
in vision. 

After dark of this day, he took the coach for Chey- 
enne. He was the only passenger, and rode inside for 
the first ten miles, when, weary of the loneliness and 
the jolting, he got outside with the driver, who was 
glad of company in a region where several robberies 
had recently been committed, and who had been driv- 
ing a few weeks before, when three men were shot. 
They passed that spot at midnight, and soon after 
where another driver had been shot the previous sea- 
son. They came on through " Robbers' Roost," and 
were within two miles of the station at " Old Woman's 
Fork," when, as the horses were walking up a rather 
steep rise, a voice from the left front said, " Hold up 
there ! " and six masked men sprung up, and levelled 
rifles on them. Mr. Pickett immediately said, " Gen- 
tlemen, you are in poor luck to-night. Only two on 
board, — the driver and a preacher." The response 
was, "Get down from there!" As he got down, the 



102 Memoirs of Joseph W. Pickett. 

rain which had been collecting on his hat commenced 
running off. He raised his hands to take off his hat, 
which they thought a move for his pistols, and pointed 
their guns on him. He did not pretend to notice them, 
but gave his hat several vigorous shakes. As he put it 
on, the leader asked, " How much money have you ? " 
" Three or four dollars/' was the reply. " Is that all ?" 
said the leader. "I guess I have about that," answered 
Mr. Pickett. Seeing the rifles pointed at him, he said 
that he had no fire-arms, and never carried any, when 
they pointed away from him. It was now raining 
harder, and he said, " Driver, it is raining so hard that 
I will not get on with you, but will get inside, as soon 
as these gentlemen will let us off." At this, the leader 
said, " Get in there ! " Mr. Pickett thanked him, and 
entered the coach. The robbers then threw out the 
mail-bags, and, touching Mr. Pickett's valise, asked 
pleasantly, "Is this your valise?" "Yes," said he, 
"valise and blanket." "What have you in it ? " "Some 
clothes, shirts, and a Bible." It was their last word 
with him ; and he sat for half an hour looking on the 
robbers, as they poured out the contents of the mail- 
bags. They kept the registered letters, tore open 
those supposed to have money, put the others back, 
and handed the bags to him, which he took, and laid 
down. Then, after breaking open the express-box, 
they said, " Go on ! " 

At home for a few days, he enjoyed a view of the 
total eclipse of the sun in the clear air on July 29, and 
departed on the 5th of August, to prosecute his mission 
in the Black Hills. 






Sixty-six Hours of Staging. 103 

A teg. 9, 1878. — On we go, night and day ; the coach full. I had 
to sit upright. It made me ache at times. An army officer was 
with us, going to Fort Laramie. He looked half-drunk, when he 
got aboard. He drank at every station. After midnight, he was 
very sick, threw up his hands with a terrific groan, as in a fit. He 
thought we were attacked by train-robbers. A fat woman in front 
of him was greatly frightened. We cried to the driver to hold up. 
We soon dragged the officer out on the ground, that he might lie 
horizontally. It was some twenty minutes before he " came to." 
He knew nothing, when we lifted him in. Such national defend- 
ers ! . . . For the last thirty miles, we have been among low hills. 
You never saw flowers so plenty and beautiful, even on the prairies 
of Iowa. 

Jenney' > s Stockade, Wyoming Territory, August 10. — We 
reached here at 10 A.M. Our passengers were much excited 
last night, gave their money and watches to the driver, and all 
came inside. But it was so crowded I went outside till one 
o'clock this morning. As the driver said, " This would be a 
place for the road-agents," as the robbers are called, I thought of 
the verses : — 

" He shall cover thee with his feathers, 
And under his wings shalt thou trust.'' 

We are all thoroughly tired. The fat lady is smaller. 

11 P.M.— At Deadwood, after sixty-six hours of terrible jolting. 

Lead City, Dakota Territory, August 17. — Off to the hills away, 
looking down on two cities ! Then, treading the ridge for a quarter 
of a mile, I came to the highest summit of rocks. Here I sat for 
an hour, pondering, meditating. 

The woodpeckers were crowing in the old dead trees. The 
little chip-squirrels were lively. Two came up to visit me. 

" They are so unacquainted with man, 
Their tameness 'tis shocking to see." 

The little fellows came near, bobbed away again ; touched my 
boot, away again ; then up my leg, into my lap, on my Bible, and 



104 Memoirs of Joseph W. Pickett. 

commenced nibbling my fingers. At this, I stirred a little. Off 
they whirled in a moment. 

Near a high ledge, I found a cave, into which I went some forty 
feet. It smelled so strong of old Bruin that I felt really ticklish. 
There was a nest of leaves, and the unmistakable bear smell. But 
no bears are found here now. The smell must have remained for 
a year or two. 

I saw yesterday a splendid specimen of gold ore in rotten 
quartz. It weighed two pounds, and contained about eighty 
dollars' worth of gold. The free gold was all through it. I took 
a stroll among the mines and mills, and saw the great iron stamps 
come down on the ore, and crush it. One mill has eighty of these 
stamps. They make a fearful racket. 

August 26. — The past week has been one of unremitting but 
hopeful labor. I have visited nearly every house and miner's 
cabin in the town, and been cordially received. One day I spent 
eight hours in steady calling. The work is the greatest I may 
ever have in my mountain field. Silverton is completely dwarfed 
by it. One week ago last Sabbath, a committee was chosen of 
four reliable citizens, formerly members of Baptist, Methodist, 
Presbyterian, and Congregational churches, to prepare a Constitu- 
tion and Articles of Faith, which would be acceptable to all 
evangelical believers. They agreed upon articles of faith, and 
prepared a Constitution, by which the church is to manage its 
own affairs, and at the same time be connected with the Congre- 
gational churches of the country, because in so doing it may 
maintain its freedom, while joined for aid and sympathy with 
a body that is universally known for liberality of Christian senti- 
ment. The Constitution and Articles were adopted with great 
harmony. Last evening twenty-one persons united in the organi- 
zation, and in a crowded house, in the theatre, covenanted with 
each other to lift up the standard of the cross in this needy city. 
Resolutions were passed, requesting me to secure a minister. It 
was the first effort here at Christian organization. In fact, I am 
the first minister to preach a sermon in this town of two thousand 



Society in Deadwood. 105 

inhabitants. Nearly one-half of the members are ladies, who will 
be very helpful. 

Sabbath morning I preached at Deadwood to a full house, — 
a very intelligent audience. The need of a minister there is also 
imperative. There is no field in our whole country where the 
demand is so pressing. I wish I had the ear of all our churches, 
to tell them what a work God is throwing upon us to-day. The 
Christian element in these mountain towns must be united in 
churches free from denominational control. This is the special 
work of the Congregational churches. We can harmonize this 
element as no other denomination can. 

A sorry lot of passengers came in at Deadwood the other night. 
They were robbed six miles of where we were robbed. There 
were three robbers. They made seven passengers hold up their 
hands, which they tied behind them, except the two women, whose 
stockings they slipped down, and took out money about the ankles. 
They got a watch and some three hundred dollars. The mail was 
robbed, not so carefully as the- other time, but strewn all about. 

I made a number of calls in Deadwood, and found some culti- 
vated, excellent women, with tasteful homes and flowers and 
mosses. How soon the hand of refinement will deck these wild 
hills with the evidences of culture ! 

I visited the Chinese quarter. Went into one of the opium 
dens, and saw pipes and opium in abundance, and a beautiful 
little Chinese girl, about three years old, jabbering in Chinese like 
a race-horse. The Chinamen bought her in San Francisco for 
one hundred dollars. 

The other evening, while sitting on the piazza, enjoying a dis- 
play of nature's pyrotechnics, a horseman rode up in the drench- 
ing rain, and in a strong Irish accent inquired for me, asking 
several times if I was a Protestant. He wanted me to attend a 
funeral in Central. A man's wife had died, leaving a babe. He 
was very poor, he said ; but they would take a collection for 
me. I said, "No, my friend. I will be glad to go for nothing, 
and help in the house of sorrow." So I went in a drizzling rain. 
In walking up the gulch to the house, I saw a silver quarter in the 



io6 Memoirs of Joseph W. Pickett. 

mud. I went into a neighbor's house to see the babe, and pre- 
sented him with the quarter. The miners were much pleased. 

Central, September 2. — Was sick Saturday, and did not go out 
all day. In the cool of the evening, I walked quietly to Dead- 
wood. As I was leaving, Miss H left the crowded table of 

boarders on whom she was waiting, and slipped a silver dollar 
into my hand, saying very low, " Do not walk," and glided back to 
her table. What could be more beautiful than such acts of 
womanly kindness? They bring tears to my eyes. But I pre- 
ferred a slow walk, as I had been sitting all day. 

At church, the house was full. I invited those who love the 
Saviour, members of churches, and those who have been from 
home so long they are not sure of their membership, but feel the 
love of God in their hearts, to communion. The stillness was re- 
markable. I was surprised at the number who communed. 

September 3. — Went to Spearfish through deeply wooded hills 
and valleys, — so there is plenty of material for building, — then 
we suddenly broke out upon the prairies, with green hills in the 
distance, rounded into varied forms of loveliness and beauty. I 
was beside myself with delight at this release from the cramped 
gulches, where I have spent so many weeks. We rode through 
gently undulating prairies, among farms, with wheat in stack, oats 
being harvested, fine gardens, and great fields of potatoes. We 
struck the town of Spearfish, on the beautiful little river of that 
name, about 6 P.M. I walked over the town, and asked every 
one to get me out a congregation. The little school-house was full 
at 7.30 P.M. 

In the night, what a change! The wind north-west; foggy, 
drizzling. I walked to the river which irrigates the valley, and to 
some large springs, the waters of which flow in a beautiful brook 
through the town. There are three small stores, two hotels, a 
saw-mill, and a nouring-mill under way. There are ranches for 
eight miles to the Sweet Water. Here will be a Sanitarium for 
the Hills. I told them I would come back, and work over the 
whole valley. How little I knew, when shrinking from coming, 
that such wealth of opportunity was before me ! 



Academy at Spearfish. 107 

September 17. — A church organized in Central, with twenty- 
seven members. 

September 21. — A pleasant walk of seven miles, and two rides 
(eight miles) to Spearfish. What quiet and rest in the sweet fields, 
the gushing springs, and, the sparkling river! Half a mile from 
the road, two men were found hung, — one a butcher from Dead- 
wood, the other lived in Spearfish. I attended the funeral of the 
latter. They were stealing cattle, and the ranch-men found them. 
They have no sympathy here. At evening,. I started down the 
valley, — just a garden-spot. When half-way to the Red Water, 
the project of an academy at Spearfish dawned upon me. It 
thrilled me, and I had to speak of it. The first man I met 
said, " Now, I will write to my wife, and she will come on with 
the children to live here." Every one is charmed. It is the only 
place for a project of the kind in the Black Hills. 

Deadwood, Septei7iber 26. — Arranged for organizing a Bible 
Society for the Black Hills. 

Spearfish, September 30. — I have gathered together the Chris- 
tian element, and aided in organizing a church of eleven members. 
On the Sabbath, we celebrated the Lord's Supper for the first time 
amid these beautiful surroundings. About seven hundred dol- 
lars was subscribed, without any pressure, at the morning meet- 
ing, for building a church, increased to-day to one thousand and 
twenty-five dollars. 

I shall never forget my first view of this delightful valley. 
Rising in the Hills, the Spearfish River flows with great rapidity 
some ten miles north, till it empties into the Red Water. It forms 
a valley about two miles wide, easily irrigated, and one of the 
most productive and romantic, I venture to say, in the world. To 
the westward extend lofty hills crowned with pine ; while to the 
east, from out the plain, rises Lookout Mountain, with its slopes 
covered with rich grasses and flowers. Near where the pure 
and sparkling waters flow from out the hills, the town is located, 
containing some two hundred inhabitants, but destined from its 



108 Memoirs of yoseph W. Pickett. 

healthfulness and beauty to be a favorite resort for the dwellers in 
the Hills. I passed down the valley, the first minister who had 
traversed it, visiting the ranches along its whole extent. Covered 
with abundance, it seemed a very Eden. Glancing down the 
future, I saw this luxuriant valley adorned with Christian homes, 
with school-houses at intervals, and happy children fitting for life's 
duties. The health and striking beauty of the place, the cheap- 
ness of living, the facilities for building, and the opportunity for 
gathering miners' families to be educated, all impressed me as 
favorable for planting an institution of learning which should be 
a permanent blessing to the region. 

Deadwood, October 9. — I called to see the assayist at the Cali- 
fornia Mine. He was running a gold brick. The furnace was 
white heat. With thick gloves, he opened the door, seized the 
retort with large tongs, and poured the contents into the mould. 
The brick was a beauty. I carried it around some time. It was 
all I wanted to carry. Worth about seven thousand dollars. 

The Congregational Association of the Black Hills was organ- 
ized October 10, embracing the churches of Deadwood, Lead, 
Central, and Spearfish. Papers of a high order of merit were pre- 
sented, and the occasion was richly enjoyed. Said one of the 
delegates, "Is it possible we can have such a gathering as this, 
where recently was only a howling wilderness ? " 

On the evening of this day, I learned that a brother from Galena, 
a mining town some ten miles east from Deadwood, wished to see 
me. I accompanied him on his return home the next morning, 
and preached that evening, to a crowded house, in the little school- 
house. The crowd filled the aisle, and stood so thick about me 
that I could scarcely make a gesture. I found a number of intel- 
ligent families in this silver-mining camp. They were very de- 
sirous that I should return and aid in organizing a church. I 
returned the following week, and aided in uniting in church fellow- 
ship seventeen persons. There was no denominational feeling in 
any direction. 

October 17. — I go out of the Hills, from Galena, nearly due 
north to Crook City, in an opposite direction from the old route. 



Crook City and Rapid City. 109 

Mr. A walked with me a mile to the top of the hill over- 
looking the deep gulch of the Bear Butte Creek, in which Galena 
is situated. We knelt in prayer. I then struck out on quite a 
good road, Bible and overcoat in hand. The morning sun was 
glorious, the deep pine woods beautiful. Not a house for eight 
miles. Now, I walk in the valley, where there are deciduous trees 
enough to remind me of home, oak -leaves flying about; now, on 
the ridge of hills, looking off on the plains. Now a chip-squirrel 
clucking so leisurely, now a red squirrel quacking as if the welfare 
of the universe depended on his effort. I was saying all the way : 
"What has God wrought? May I never fail to ascribe all the 
praise and honor for what has been done in the Black Hills to 
Him to whom it wholly belongs ! May I never forget God's ap- 
pearance and revelation to me at Jenney's Stockade and in the 
valley of the Spearfish ! O Lord, abide with these churches 
through many years to come ! Go up with them to spiritual con- 
quests, and get to thyself great glory in these Hills." 

After walking about ten miles, I came into hills and wide, grassy 
valleys ; and, after four miles more, to Crook, a small, dilapidated 
town on the Whitewater, which receives the Deadwood Creek, and 
its thick, stamp-mill stain, red as blood. 

Crook City, October 18. — Called all over town. Had crowded 
services. The whole town seemed to come together, packing the 
room. There are only a few Christian people here, — not ripe for 
an organization. I talked freely with several, and was surprised 
to find their views harmonizing with mine as to the peculiar facili- 
ties of Congregationalism to meet the wants of these communities. 

Rapid City, October 21. — Rode here, thirty-five miles from 
Crook, nearly south, on Rapid Creek in the foot-hills. Visited the 
mining camp at Rockerville, fifteen miles south-west, and preached 
in Rapid on the Sabbath. This is on the east side of the Hills. 

Ten passengers in the coach ! Two " road agents " were on, 
going to Cheyenne for trial, shackled hand and foot. I looked at 
them, wondering whether they were the same who stopped me. 
Two guards were along, heavily armed. I had to ride backwards. 
Was very sick. 



no Memoirs of Joseph W. Pickett. 

After an absence of eighty days from home, Mr. 
Pickett returned to Colorado Springs, October 25, and 
was employed upon his large correspondence, in en- 
deavoring to procure suitable ministers for the churches 
he had planted, in plans with reference to other sec- 
tions of his field, in attendance upon the meeting of the 
Colorado Association at Greeley, in reading and study, - 
and in preparation for the labors of the winter. He 
was anxious to enter upon work in needy places that 
he had not visited. His explorations had but touched 
the eastern boundary of the Rocky Mountain District. 
He saw a vast region toward the setting sun to be 
occupied. He longed to help in promoting education 
and religion in Utah and New Mexico. But as the 
wants of the Black Hills were so urgent, and as he 
could not at once secure laborers for the field, he de- 
termined himself to return thither. After a hard and 
weary journey, he took up his work where he had 
left it. 

Rapid City, Dakota Territory, December "8. — Reached here Sat- 
urday, at four o'clock in the morning. Called on a large number of 
people that day. Preached Sabbath morning and evening. House 
more than full at night. We talked up the matter of organization. 
All were pleased. We appointed a committee of three to look to 
the matter. 

Rockerville, December 12. — My room is a large log room, adjoin- 
ing the hotel, which is also log. Two bunks are fastened up on 
the west side. The south one is mine. The room is so cold that 
I do not more than half sleep. Water froze solid. All the houses 
here are log. I took a daylight walk, to look upon the rising sun. 
Here we see the magnificent plains, more beautiful than where 






Mission Work at Rockerville. in 

I was in summer. No such deep gulleys, prairie and woodland 
about half and half. 

I called on an old lady from Michigan. She looked coldly upon 
me, as much as to say, " What do you want ? " I said, " I am a 
Congregational minister, calling to see what can be done for the 
religious welfare of the community." Her face lightened, like the 
sun breaking out of a cloud: She reached her hand to me, and 
said how glad she was to see me ; that she had written her daugh- 
ter to-day how much a missionary was needed. I had a very pleas- 
ant call. The evidences of refinement were all about, — a pretty 
ivy, a calla, an oleander. After calling through the west part of 
the camp, I walked to the woods for prayer and meditation. It is 
so still here, no wind, the valley full of oak-trees, with pine all 
about them. Ragged, perpendicular rocks spring up on every 
side, making the scenery very romantic. I walked away into the 
deep, solemn quiet of the hills. The ground was richly carpeted 
with a thick evergreen, — kinnikinnic, — which is smoked by the 
Indians. God seemed near. I thanked him that I could preach 
his great and glorious truth. I never felt more like rejoicing in 
my work. 

This is a beautiful and healthy place. The water is excellent. 
The air coming through the vast pine forests is sweet as the breath 
of spring. I think the cars will come here some day from Chey- 
enne, or from another point, in twelve hours. These Hills are too 
beautiful and too productive not to draw a railroad within a few 
years. 

In calling, I found a number of Catholic families. All treated 
me kindly. There are some excellent people here. I took dinner 
with a gentleman who went to the academy with me in Kingsville 
thirty years ago. His house is on the borders of the vast forest. 
How romantic the hill and vale, and rugged rocks of granite tilted 
up perpendicularly ! Now and then I climbed to their summits. 



Rapid City, December 17. — It w T as so cold, I determined to walk 
from Rockerville. I dreaded the prairie road, so, with my love of 
adventure and romance, struck out on my own hook straight as 



112 Memoirs of "Joseph W. Pickett. 

a bee-line for Rapid. It was up and down, rocks and hills. Two 
miles out, I struck a miner's cabin, — an old man all alone. His 
wife had died. He said I was going in the right direction. He 
came out, and pointed me on. I crossed Rapid Creek on the ice, 
and went down its romantic valley, amid glorious scenery, and 
great meadows with abundant grass uncropped, except where the 
deer had come out from the deep shadows of the bordering pines 
to feed. I started up a deer in a ravine, but with a crackle of 
brush he was away among the low pines. The road crossed the 
creek several times. I crossed twice on the ice, several times on 
foot-logs, but once could find neither ; had to pull off my boots, 
and wade. But a cabin was near, and I ran to the fire, and did not 
take cold. Got here at 6.30 P.M., which all counted good time. 

December 19. — A hard day's work at Deadwood, visiting from 
house to house. Women washing amid frost and cold, looking 
so feeble ; children deformed from vices of parents. 

December 21. — Started from Deadwood at 5 A.M. on the coach, 
snow six inches deep. Had a beautiful ride on the box with the 
driver. We found no snow after twenty miles. Reached Rapid 
City at 2 P.M. I visited the school. In the night, the wind blew 
fearfully. This morning the snow is flying. The people in Dead- 
wood were determined to have me stay another day ; but I had 
work to do here, and I have learned to do things when they ought 
to be done. If I had stayed, what a time I should have had ! I 
preach here to-morrow, and shall feel no anxiety about the storm. 
But the roads are full of freighters. What a time they will have 
with their long teams, sometimes of horses, sometimes oxen, some- 
times mules ! 

December 23. — A new hall is just completed and plastered, a 
rarity for the Hills. A good lady wanted our meeting held there, 
as a sort of dedication of it before the dance of Christmas eve. 
As it was stormy and blowing fiercely, I hesitated, and thought it 
best to go into the little school-house ; but I consented, and went 
from house to house all over town, telling of the meeting. I 
longed to impart some spiritual blessing. The people gathered in 



. Mid-winter Labors. 113 

good numbers. There was an organ, line singing, and evergreens 
for a Christmas tree. 

December 24. — Returned to Deadwood, and visited there, and 
in Central and Lead. We had a Christmas tree at Deadwood. So 
much travel is attended with considerable exposure. God is so 
kind, to give me strength for this severe work in this severe 
weather. Twelve degrees below zero at sunrise Christmas morn- 
ing. The next morning, finding the thermometer only down to 
zero, I rode to Rapid, and walked to Haywood and Rockerville, 
and back to Rapid, holding meetings on successive days in those 
places. 

Spearfish, January 1, 1879. — The coldest day I think I ever 
experienced. The air cut like a knife. I left Rapid at daylight, 
rode three hours with the driver, then took the inside. We reached 
Crook at noon, rode on to the Centennial Prairie. The driver 
wheeled his six splendid horses out into the snow-drifts, and struck 
across into my road to Spearfish. Was not that kind ? I walked 
ten miles, got in about 6 P.M. I found the road filled with teams 
going to a ball, but I preferred walking. The academy has as- 
sumed a more tangible shape. Lumber is now on the ground, 
ready for building when spring opens. 

January 3. — Rode to Deadwood, thermometer twenty degrees 
below zero, and visited in Lead and Central. I have endured for 
the past few weeks about all that human nature can endure, it 
seems to me, of hardship. The cold has been so intense as to 
prostrate one, and almost take the life out of me. It has been 
rather gloomy work, calling in Central. The homes look so for- 
lorn, — miserable shanties, with no comforts. Disappointments 
and trials have apparently hardened people, so that their minds 
seem stupid. Numbers are going to Leadville, Colorado. 

We observed the Week of Prayer for three evenings at Lead. 
One afternoon, I cut up a sheet of paper with Scripture verses on 
the topic assigned, which was " Special prayer for all in the com- 
munity who are or have been professors of religion, that they may 
be fully consecrated to the service of the Lord," and gave one to 



114 Memoirs of Joseph W. Pickett. 

each Christian on whom I called. They seemed to appreciate my 
calls. I got around at seven o'clock, with one text left. I said, 
" That must be mine." The house was dark, but the teacher had 
left a good fire, and swept out nicely. I lit a lamp, looked for my 
verses : — 

" He giveth power to the faint, 
And to them that have no might he increaseth strength. 
Even the youths shall faint and be weary, 
And the young men shall utterly fall : 

But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength ; 
They shall mount up with wings as eagles ; 
They shall run, and not be weary ; 
They shall walk, and not faint." 

Isaiah xl., 29-31. 

One and another came in, bringing their verses. A stranger, 
not a church-member, came to talk about building a church. He 
spoke of the crowd that could not be accommodated on Sabbath 
night. So, after prayers, we went home through the storm, feeling 
that we had a good meeting. 

Galena, January 10. — I enjoyed my walk to this place. The 
road was not well broken, so that I got pretty tired. I feel per- 
fectly safe, travelling about this winter. Robbers and thieves 
cannot secrete themselves by the wayside. The snow is two feet 
deep. It lies on many of the pine branches like great pillows 
rounded off by the wind. In some quiet places, the limbs of the 
pine and spruce are bent down, giving that peculiar weird appear- 
ance seen in pictures of northern countries in winter. Sometimes, 
I traversed deep ravines, where the winter sun never shines, and 
the pines are shaggy with trailing mosses. I reached here a little 
after noon. Was so tired I did not go out till evening. The little 
school-house was more than full. A good audience again the next 
evening, all that could pack into the house. I called during the 
whole day, and on nearly every person in camp. We have the 
most liberal Catholics here I have ever met with. Many of them 
are among my hearers. The thought occurs whether the time is 



Permanent Pastors Needed. 115 

not at hand when Protestants and Catholics may feel that they 
have many interests in common. 

Rapid City, January 20. — I lectured at Rockerville Friday, 
on " A True Life," and came here to a lyceum in the evening, 
that was started from my New Year's sermon. I read Byron's 
"Waterloo," and was chosen critic, and one of the judges for the 
discussion. On the Sabbath, a church of fifteen members was 
organized, embracing the best, and in fact all the Christian ele- 
ment of the place. The day was beautiful, and the hills and plains 
seemed to smile approvingly upon the first communion in this 
hopeful town, at the confluence of the Sidney and Port Pierre 
stage lines. But the work cannot long go forward in the Hills 
without ministers to take it up. I wait and watch, asking where 
are the men to push forward the most hopeful enterprise that has 
been opened for our churches in many years. God has given me 
good success, and I must not desert the field until men can come. 
It has taken much time to regain what I lost in leaving for the 
month I was home. I seem greatly needed now. There was never 
so much religious feeling in the Hills. But occasional sermons 
from superintendents and general missionaries cannot do the work 
that is needed. Permanent and able pastors, such as unfolded 
the best type of New England character, are wanted. We must 
expect some denominational competition. But the Congregation- 
alists were the pioneers, and have built on no other man's founda- 
tion. To find a new field untouched by the various denominations 
can scarcely happen again. If our work is pressed with energy 
and wisdom, the results will be glorious in coming generations. 

One never wearies with the beauty of these wonderful Hills. 
Sometimes, it is true, the storms brewed in the wild canons of the 
Yellowstone and the Big Horn Mountains come racing in reckless 
license over the weird plains, and strike in boisterous fury. The 
vast forests of sombre pines, caught by the tempests, sigh and 
moan and toss, as if in throes of agony. But the storm passes, 
the clear sunlight pours its wealth of comfort and cheer into the 
mountain valleys, and one thinks it the most lovely spot in the 



n6 Memoirs of yoseph W. Pickett. 

world. The atmosphere on the eastern slope of the Hills has a 
softness and purity at times, which is altogether fascinating. 

Rapid City lies on the eastern plains, about midway of the Hills, 
close under their shadow, on the longest stream that flows from 
them. The valley is broad, beautiful, fertile, easily irrigated, and 
dotted with ranches. The Sabbath sun broke over the eastern 
plains in matchless splendor. The long lines of western hills 
glowed like a vast diamond in its setting of silvery plains. One 
seemed to hear from the plains and valleys the tramp of the 
coming generations, and from out the heavens the angels' advent 
song. 

TO HIS MOTHER, ON HIS FORTY-SEVENTH BIRTHDAY. 

I have felt this evening, though pressed with work, that I must 
stop, and write a few words, at least, to the mother who bore me. 
I cannot say that time flies very rapidly with me. Great changes 
make such breaks as divide up the years somewhat. For instance, 
it seems a long time since I was in mother's room, in St. Louis, 
with Bible and map of the United States spread out before me, as 
I prayed for direction as to my future life. Nothing has happened 
to me in many years that seemed so pleasant as being with you at 
that time. How strangely God led me there with my boys, and 
what events were to follow ! My marriage, our departure West, 
that long trip through Southern Colorado, the visit to the Black 
Hills, strange vicissitudes, exposures, and dangers, — how like a 
dream, and yet how real ! 

How little I thought, when in" the old log school-house studying 
in Parley's Geography of the Rocky Mountains, that I should 
cross alone their,, wild ^summits, and feel familiar in their soli- 
tudes ! What a privilege your boy esteems it to plant the pre- 
cious gospel his father and mother taught him, in these regions ! 
How grand these beginnings ! Faith sees a handful of corn on 
the tops of the mountains shake like Lebanon in the not distant 
future. I feel well and strong for the work before me, and delight 
in it more than in anything I could do in all the world. If I had 



A Mother s Prayers. 1 1 7 

all the gold and silver in these mountains, it would be nothing to 
the satisfaction which I receive from going about doing good. 

And now I realize that you cannot be spared to your children 
many years. I want to tell you how I have been sustained by 
your prayers in my arduous work. Many times in my talks, I 
have said : " My mother is praying for me every day. Her race is 
almost run. She has borne- the heat and burden of the day : she 
can do little now but pray for the reapers in the harvest-field." 
Never forget your boy in toil and temptation. Pray that the Holy 
Spirit may rest upon me, that God may give me a burning love 
for the souls of men, and a faith that will overcome the world as I 
find it here in its intensest forms, that I may have wisdom and 
foresight in planting churches, and be so guided in everything 
that at last I may be able to say with Paul, " I have fought a 
good light, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith." 

Central City, Dakota Territory, January 28, 1879. 

February 3. — Preached to a full house in the morning at Rocker- 
ville, and in the afternoon at two o'clock started back to Rapid. I 
took another cross-cut, different from the one I took in December, 
thinking I could do better ; but it was worse, a considerable part 
of the way perpendicular, over hills and ravines so dark and 
gloomy. In the deep glens there seems almost an eternal silence, 
except the moaning of the pines. The sun became obscured, also 
the moon, so that I was obliged to guide my course by the out- 
lines of the hills. Darkness crept on. I was no longer weary, 
but hurried on in a half-walk, half-run. Coming to a broad valley, 
I stopped to listen several times, and at last heard the murmur of 
the w r aters of Rapid Creek, which never seemed so grateful. I 
struck a road leading tw r o miles down its southern bank to Rapid, 
which I reached at half-past six o'clock. There w^as a large con- 
gregation in the hall. I was soaked through with sweat. 

February 27. — The plains are quite full of Indians. They sur- 
rounded Rapid. The soldiers from Fort Meade are after them. 
They are mostly strolling bands, w T ho have run away from Red 
Cloud Agency, on the Sidney route. They are running off stock, 



n8 Memoirs of yoseph W. Pickett. 

and are after the freighters. I do not think they are in much of 
a killing mood ; but I am glad I am not on the way home just now. 

Mr. Pickett continued his itinerant labors, encoun- 
tering storms and cold, encouraging and strengthening 
the little bands of Christians he had brought together, 
harmonizing conflicting elements, setting in order the 
things that were wanting, lecturing upon education, 
temperance, and literary subjects, helping in plans- and 
subscriptions for church-building, and looking anx- 
iously for laborers to come to his relief, until the 
middle of March, when he was cheered by the arrival 
of helpers for the work at Lead and Central, and for 
Rapid City and Rockerville. Meanwhile, other minis- 
ters had taken charge at Deadwood and at Spearfish 
and Galena. 

With a happy heart, he turned his face homeward, 
after four months of the severest labor and exposure 
of his life. The stage-route of three days and two 
nights to Sidney, which once seemed so formidable, 
was now a pleasant pastime. He reached the bosom 
of his family on the 21st of March. Upon the report 
of his labors to the Secretaries of the American 
Home Missionary Society, they congratulated him that 
he " had been able to present to Christ for his accept- 
ance an Eshcol bunch of churches, big and succulent 
and full of seeds for the future," and told him that he 
had probably never done more in an equal time, and 
would not be likely to do so much again in the same 
space, though he should continue many years. In 
view, however, of the extent of his general field and 



Western Colorado. 119 

the openings for his labors in many directions, he 
panted to press into new regions, and sometimes felt 
that he was confined disproportionately long in the 
Black Hills. But he was too near his work to see it 
in full perspective and in all its importance. 

On his route home, he fell in with the swelling 
tides of a new migration to the mountains. The roads 
were thronged with people. The opening of the new 
carbonate fields of Western Colorado had kindled an 
enthusiasm scarcely paralleled in the country. Multi- 
tudes thrown out of employment in the general busi- 
ness depression of the previous year were pressing 
into the canons and valleys and parks of that region. 
Denver and Colorado Springs were full of strangers. 
Pike's Peak looked down upon an almost endless pro- 
cession of wagons through the Ute Pass into South 
Park and the mountains beyond. Passing south to 
the line of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe rail- 
way, he was still more impressed with the extent of 
this westward movement. Standing in the streets of 
Cafion City, he looked with astonishment upon the 
throbbing mass of life that was passing through. 
Going into the principal saloon, he was surprised at 
the number of drinking men pressing up to the bar. 
Profanity and drunkenness seemed to rule the hour. 
He stood in silent meditation: " Are these men to be 
the founders of empire? Are they to build up the 
communities that shall possess these mountains?" 
He thought, by contrast, of the Pilgrim Fathers, and 
of the foundations they laid, and of the absence of 



120 Memoirs of Joseph W. Pickett. 

religious sentiment in this hegira. A heathen state 
of society seemed to threaten, instead of a vigorous 
and advanced development of Christianity. Barbarism 
was the first danger. The prospect was appalling. 
He again quickened his steps to follow the adventurers 
with the word of life. He wrote: — 

That gospel, which has thus far been the hope of our country, 
must follow these settlers into the mountain fastnesses ; and when 
the day of sober reflection and often of bitter disappointment 
comes, as it surely will come to many, the minister of Christ and 
the Bible must be near, and these wanderers must hear the 
Saviour's words, " I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the 
fire, that thou mayest be rich." It is one of the sweetest thoughts 
in this mountain work that here is to be a grand test of the 
gospel's power. If it can overcome here, it can anywhere. It 
will overcome here ; and Christ will be honored gloriously, when 
from these valleys and mountains churches shall rise, and devout 
worshippers shall exclaim : — 

" As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, 
So the Lord is round about his people 
From henceforth even for ever." 

He was also attracted by wide openings for Chris- 
tian enterprise in other sections. He longed to have 
a hand in imparting spiritual gifts to New Mexico and 
Utah, where a more vigorous prosecution of church 
and school enterprises is demanded, to deliver the 
people of those territories from ignorance and debase- 
ment and from corrupt ecclesiastical despotisms ; and 
also to Montana, which was then receiving a larger 
immigration than for several years previously. 

On the 13th of April, he organized a church with 
sixteen members at Coal Creek, and afterwards made 



Southern Colorado. 121 

explorations of new mining camps in Southern Col- 
orado. He then visited some fields which were for- 
merly cultivated by home missionaries, but which had 
undergone discouragement and neglect. He attended 
the meeting of the Colorado Association at Boulder, 
and gave a full report of his labors, and especially of 
his work in the Black Hills. His report glowed with 
holy fire. He pictured so vividly the valleys and hill- 
sides where he had prayed and gathered churches that 
the brethren felt themselves transported in his faith. 
During the latter half of May, he was again in the 
Hills, spending a day with each of his seven churches, 
and attending a meeting of the Black Hills Associa- 
tion. He then hastened back to mingle with the tide 
of travel that he had seen surging into Western Col- 
orado. His letters of this period afford the following 
incidents : — 

Silver Cliff, Custer County, Colorado, April 15. — The morning 
ride up the Arkansas was beautiful, the river sparkling, the plum- 
trees, of which there are a great number, in full blossom. The red- 
wing blackbird was hovering over his swamp home with no fear 
of the ague, the lark was singing his sweetest notes, and my own 
heart was full of praise and thanksgiving. 

At the Junction, ten miles from Canon City, we started up Coal 
Creek two and a half miles, and reached the town. I went to see 
the coal-bank whence comes the bright Canon City coal. It is 
easily worked from the surface, not by a shaft. The vein is five 
and a half feet thick, sinks about one foot in twenty, and covers a 
large space. The old miners think it the most perfect coal they 
ever worked. We passed into the total darkness, each with his 
miner's lamp, about half a mile. It was dry the whole distance, 
and a pleasant place to work. The miners get ninety cents a ton 



122 Memoirs of yoseph W. Pickett. 

for delivering it at the dump. They can get out three tons for an 
ordinary day's work, which is pretty good wages. 

I called around among the people. The Welsh have large, 
well-trained families, and are anxious to have them in church and 
Sabbath-school. The church was organized Sabbath evening. 
They are all Welsh, and seemed harmonious. Their minister 
preaches in Welsh in the morning, and in English in the evening. 
The Sabbath-school is wholly English. 

Monday morning, I rose at five, took breakfast, and started on 
foot to strike the Canon City coach, but missed my way, and went 
up Oak Creek Canon. By hanging to bushes and jumping from 
rocks, I got two and a half miles in two hours, with one fall into 
the creek. At last, I got into the road; and the stage with six 
horses overtook me. 

About two miles after leaving Coal Creek, we found snow, 
which got deeper and deeper, though thawing fast. The bright 
sun was trying to the eyes. At the Half-way House, the snow 
was so deep the coach could not go on. Another gentleman and 
myself took a light carriage, and we reached Rosita at sunset. It 
was raw and cold, and the town full of snow, with wild mountain 
scenery all around. To the west is Wet Mountain Valley; and 
beyond rise the familiar Sangre de Christo Mountains, not more 
than twenty miles away. 

In the morning, I took the coach for this place. All is rush 
here. I find a number of members of Congregational churches. 

Denver, May I. — With all my love for Colorado Springs, I 
have to acknowledge that Denver is beautiful. To decorate needs 
wealth and taste. Both are here. The atmosphere seems more 
humid. The yards are lovely, the lawns luxuriant, pear-trees and 
plum in full bloom, large flowering-almonds, white and red, loaded 
with blossoms, and building going on in every part of the city. 

Sidney, Nebraska, May 13. — I had a day of sweet meditation 
and divine communion yesterday. The white, fleecy clouds floated 
peacefully in the clear sky, with the mountains in the background, 
the shadows marching with light step over the tender grass, no 



The Plains in May. 123 

dust, and Nature in her happiest mood. But Cheyenne was raw 
and cold, as usual. A pleasant ride from Cheyenne here. Heavy 
rains have robed the earth in fresh beauty. The thin, shadowy 
cattle are luxuriating. Poor things, which I saw in the cold and 
storm of last winter browsing on scraps of bushes and cactus, now 
have a thousand times more than they can eat. But, if they enjoy 
contrasts as much as we, it is doubtless all right. The lamp-post 
is pointed out to rne, where a murderer was hung last Sabbath 
morning. 

Dead-wood, May 16. — I have never seen the Plains looking 
more beautiful. These vast meadows seemed changed into a 
parade-ground. Troops of cloud-shadows marched in rapid suc- 
cession through the whole day. Here and there, great herds of 
cattle were feeding on the tender grass, green as a wheat-field 
of young grain. Meadow-larks sang sweetly, and other birds 
imparted life and movement to these uninhabited regions. Here 
and there are masses of rocks, and wild buttes worn in fantastic 
shapes. 

Night came at last. The sun sank to rest, the west glowed, 
and beautifully tinted the plains. Then the stars, one by one, 
came out of their hiding-places in the arch of heaven. After day- 
light was all gone, a bird would break out in a little warble, as if 
dreaming its low ditty. At midnight, the heavens were grand. 
The evening star had sunk, burning red, below the Western plains. 
The Dipper, bottom side up, still mindful of the order of the uni- 
verse, pointed with unerring finger to the North Star, — these 
stars, as Emerson says, 

" Envoys of beauty, 
Visiting the universe with admonishing smile." 

Then rose the moon in the far east, and the first appearance of 
day. At 3.10 A.M., the larks were pouring forth their matin-song. 

May 19. — A glorious walk to Spearfish through the magnificent 
forests, starting at five o'clock Monday morning. The weather 
and climate and scenery are perfectly beautiful. 



124 Memoirs of Joseph IV. Pickett. 

June 3. — At Denver, at the organization of the Second Church. 

Leadville, Colorado, June 20. — After a few days of rest at 
home, I started for this place, to which I have been so long look- 
ing. With valise well stored with flannels in one hand, a double 
blanket, shawl, and overcoat in the other, I left Colorado Springs 
on the five o'clock evening train for Denver. In four hours, we 
were there, in time to take the Denver and South Park train for 
the mountains. The seats are too short for good rest ; and I was 
surprised to find how well I had slept when morning came. I 
rose soon after day. We were passing through low mountains, 
and beside the sparkling waters of the Platte, which sweeps 
grandly through the gorges, unconscious of the humiliation which 
awaits it as it flattens out amid the sands of Nebraska. What a 
change! Is this dashing, brilliant stream, tearing over the stones 
along its narrow bed, the lazy, wide-flowing stream of the Plains ? 
So some stirring, energetic youth move out into the dreary plati- 
tudes of life, losing their energy and power. 

I saw a snow-capped mountain in the south-west, as the rays of 
the rising sun changed it to burnished gold. Now we began to 
climb in earnest. The train was heavily loaded. One felt like 
patting the faithful engine, as it stopped, panting for breath, to 
gain new strength and work up a full head of steam for the steep- 
est ascents. The scenery was grand in places ; and such wonders 
of engineering skill ! I am prepared to say all things are possible 
in railroad ascension. Horseshoe Bends are passed one after 
another, -and we looked down upon vast solitudes of pines and firs 
far below, or up to the snow-clad peaks above us. At length, we 
reached the summit of oozy land, where the skunk-cabbage grows, 
as I noticed on my San Juan trip last year. The water now began 
to flow toward South Park. I frequently left the train to climb a 
hill and look upon the wild waste of distant mountains, or down 
into the tops of the thickly growing firs, straight as the bayonets 
of an army on parade. Now we were pent up between moun- 
tains; again, in a moment, we had burst through. The prison- 
doors opened, and South Park lay before us like a vast meadow. 



Leadville. 125 

A beautiful stream flowed away in the distance, cattle were feed- 
ing quietly nearer by, and yonder are the white tents of the town 
of Jefferson, like some Arab encampment, ready to fold their 
wings and fly away as soon as the railroad passes on. 

A number of familiar-looking Concord coaches are in waiting. 
I secured a top seat above the driver ; nine dollars for sixty 
miles ; the scenery pleasant, both shawl and blanket in requisi- 
tion. Once the coach struck a stone and lifted on two wheels, 
where it balanced a little time. I thought it must go over, but we 
were saved. We passed on through the Park, which differs from 
San Luis in having several ranges of hills that we crossed, and 
many little streams made from the mountain snows. We passed 
through Fairplay, which has two neat churches that are sufficient 
for the place ; and on, above timber-line, snow all about us, but 
none in the road. Then we were on the bleak summit, nearly 
twelve thousand feet high, with tall peaks rising above us. Then 
we commenced descending toward the Arkansas, and I was 
pointed to the celebrated Twin Lakes, nestling amid the dark 
pine forests eight or ten miles away. 

Eight miles up the Arkansas, we turn to the east, and begin to 
see the wonderful town stretched along for three or four miles. 
It strikes one not unfavorably, does not look so very bleak, is 
pleasantly located on rolling ground in the valley, with mountains 
all about it. Evergreens, pine, and fir are on every side, though 
being rapidly cut off; but the small trees are preserved in the 
suburbs, making cosey retreats for dwellings, which are rapidly 
going up. The furnaces are in full blast, and the livid slag is 
being poured out in molten masses. But how shall I describe the 
homeless, restless men that throng the streets, surging to and fro 
as evening comes on ? I have never seen anything like it. Silver- 
ton or Deadwocd cannot compare with the wickedness here : vast 
saloons and dance-houses on every side ; triumphal cars of disso- 
lute women, tier on tier, drawn through the streets, with bands 
playing, the carnival of hell. 

The American Home Missionary Society placed the first mis- 
sionary of any denomination in this field ; but his health failed, 



126 Memoirs of Joseph W. Pickett. 

and he was obliged to give up his work. The Union Church he 
had organized soon fell to pieces. A few gathered for our re- 
newed service on Sunday at the Opera House, who expressed 
great joy that they were not forgotten. Never was there more 
urgent work before us. We must have an able, earnest pastor 
here and a chapel this summer. 

Monday, I took a trip over the backbone of the continent to 
the new camps of Carbonateville and Kokomo. I rode ten miles 
to Chalk Ranch, up the diminishing Arkansas, the valley full of 
stunted willows, and started afoot to the summit. The scenery 
became grand, as we climbed higher and higher. Here were 
drifts of snow. I lay down on one, and made a snow-ball, of 
course. Beside the snow were the white flowers, such as I saw 
a year ago. Fleecy clouds moved through the deep blue sky, 
stooping here and there to kiss the white foreheads of the circling 
mountains. Truly, heaven and earth met together, a symbol of 
the union yet to be consummated between these mountain-dwellers 
and their heavenly Father. We were now at the head-waters of 
Ten Mile Creek, which flows into Blue River. The scenery is 
grand, — no canon, but a pleasant valley. Three miles down the 
valley, I came to Carbonateville, where I found a few families, 
and three miles further to Kokomo. Here are foundations of 
houses in every direction, so as to pre-empt lots ; but things look 
quiet. There are perhaps five hundred people, with some twenty 
families. No minister had visited here before. I secured a hall 
for religious service. It was just built, and without a seat in it. 
I put up at the post-office a notice of preaching that evening, and 
visited all over town, inviting the people to the service. They 
helped in getting seats, table, and lights. We put candles in 
beer-bottles, standing them on the floor. People crowded in, 
some one hundred and fifty. One-half of them stood. We sang 
and prayed. I enjoyed preaching to this hungry people. They 
were very attentive. No public prayer had ever been heard 
before in this community, no song of praise, no reading of the 
Word of God. 



Journey to Hartford, Conn. 127 

After a careful survey of the field at Leadville, and 
at the request of citizens of the place who had been 
appointed a building committee for the erection of a 
Congregational church, Mr. Pickett proceeded to Hart- 
ford, Conn., to solicit aid for the enterprise. On his 
journey, he found time to write: — 

June 26. — The last part of the ride through Kansas was beauti- 
ful, after the heat and dust of the parched plains. The Cotton- 
wood River is romantic in places. There are large, rich cornfields 
in which one could hide without stooping. For many miles, we 
moved along the banks of the Kaw River. The sky resembled 
the paintings with which Prof. Dana used to illustrate the car- 
boniferous era, the sun attempting to struggle through the sleep- 
ing mists. The woods looked tropical ; the bushes loaded with 
clambering vines ; the beautiful sumach, the honey-locusts and 
black walnuts clothed in rich foliage, and wild roses blooming 
everywhere. Here and there a solitary old stub, such as we used 
to see in childhood in Ohio, has moved the compassion of an ivy 
to spread the leaf of charity over its naked deformity. Yonder, 
in the wide heavens, moves with slow and steady flight a blue 
crane in quest, like some lone preacher, of better fishing-grounds. 

June 27. — We have passed into Indiana. Before crossing the 
State line, we struck old-fashioned woods ; and I feel much at 
home on a clay soil, with grass abundant. From a large red- 
clover field, the air comes in sweet at my window. Here are 
beech and maple, ash and elm ; and, on all the new fields, stumps, 
stumps ! How I have pulled them out, played around them, and 
burned them ! 

June 28. — Here is Lake Erie, that in childhood filled me with 
a sense of the Infinite. 

June 29. — Central New York is a wonder, — so much beauty of 
scenery, such homes and fine-looking people. Troy is a delightful 
city. I have enjoyed its Sabbath quiet and the churches. It is 
evident that all this is due to the religion of Jesus Christ. 



128 Memoirs of "Joseph W. Pickett. 

Hartford, Conn., July 4, 1879. — I pray to-day for our wonder- 
ful country, that the Lord may preserve and bless it, and develop 
everywhere such a civilization as I see around me here. 

The sudden changes of air and temperature which 
he encountered, and his fatigue, induced a severe attack 
of rheumatism at Hartford ; and he felt the incongruity 
of pleading upon crutches for the Rocky Mountains. 
But he pursued his mission, and in the course of a few 
days collected twelve hundred dollars. With pleasant 
memories of the kindly co-operation of Hartford pas- 
tors and people, he hastened back, stopping half a day 
with his mother at Meadville, Penn., and was at Lead- 
ville on the last day of July, securing an eligible loca- 
tion, raising additional means, and stimulating the 
speedy erection of the church. The work was hard 
and laborious, and taxed his strength and burdened his 
spirit heavily. Meanwhile, he made a missionary explo- 
ration of new fields in the Gunnison River country, and 
in the early days of September took a brief rest at 
home. The latter half of the month, he was again at 
Leadville, looking to the foundations of the church and 
gathering building materials. Thence he made a visi- 
tation in the Black Hills, to help forward his seven 
churches, and again returned to Leadville, to push on 
the work which was giving him so much anxiety. 

I took the Canon City coach at Leadville, August 21, for forty 
miles down the Arkansas River to Mahonville, a romantic little 
place, with no material as yet for a church. From there, the ride 
up the valley of the Cottonwood toward the canon was very pleas- 
ant. The mountains are grand ; and it seemed much like going 



The Gunnison River Region. 129 

to Manitou from Colorado Springs. The summits of Yale, Har- 
vard, and Princeton rise on either side of the mighty cleft which 
forms Cottonwood Pass. After riding about five miles, we came 
into the precipitous canon, and right up to Mr. Adams' beautiful 
sanitarium. The Cottonwood murmurs by. The air seemed 
balmy ; and the nervous excitement of the higher altitudes passed 
away. The springs arealmost burning hot, with soda and various 
medicinal properties, regarded as an antidote to lead-poisoning 
and other diseases. 

The next morning, I set off on a pony over the mountains. After 
rapid and laborious climbing, at 2 P.M. I stood on the backbone 
of the continent. It was grand beyond description. Descending 
rapidly to the west, I reached Hillerton at 6 P.M., near the head- 
waters of Willow Creek, which flows into the Gunnison, Here I 
found a camp of about two hundred miners, with perhaps a dozen 
families. I left an appointment for the next Wednesday evening, 
and passed on, spending the following night at the first stopping- 
place, thirty miles to the west. In attempting to save five miles 
by a cut-off, I was lost twice in the wildest part of the mountains) 
and at last led my horse over fallen timber and rocks down the 
steep mountain-side into Union Park, where I struck the road, 
having wandered from 8 A.M. to 1 P.M. Passing five miles down 
Lotus Creek, a wild canon, I came to Taylor River, really the 
Gunnison, down which I rode twenty miles, and at 8 P.M. reached 
Jack's Cabin, a weary man. 

On the morning of the 24th, I rode twelve miles to Crested 
Butte, and preached in the evening in the dining-room of the hotel 
to some forty men and a few women, comprising nearly all who 
were not away in the mines. Some Congregationalists from 
Lyons, Iowa, are putting up a smelter here. The country is beau- 
tiful, with plenty of grass along the valleys, which are hemmed 
in by the mountains on every side. Here is a vein of coal forty- 
two inches thick, which is an important consideration in an 
isolated camp like this. 

The next day, I passed on ten miles to Gothic City, which has 
an elevation of some nine thousand feet. Here is quite a village. 



130 Memoirs of Joseph W. Pickett. 

I preached to a small audience, the men being mostly absent in 
the mines. I went within a few miles of Gunnison City, the 
county seat of Gunnison County, which has six or eight families, 
and is smaller than the towns I visited. Very few persons will 
remain in the country during the winter. Many are about leaving. 
Crested Butte and Gothic are in the Elk Mountains, only a few 
miles from the line of the Ute Reservation, which shuts us out 
from the region west. Should the mines open favorably, there 
will be a large immigration in the spring, when a missionary 
should be put in here, making his head-quarters at Crested Butte, 
and supplying the camps for twenty miles around. 

Returning, I preached at Hillerton, in the post-office building 
on Broadway. It was the first religious service held in the town. 
We sang " Coronation." A weekly newspaper published there, 
The Occident, gave an abstract of the services. The weather was 
very cold, and I suffered severely. Water froze quite thick in a 
close tent. 

At Cottonwood Springs, I found letters from Leadville, inform- 
ing me of new perplexities and embarrassments in the work there. 
It was a heavy blow to me. I came down to Canon City, and 
home. 

Colorado Springs, September 9. — I had hoped for a rest, after 
the exhausting labors of the past few months, but have to return 
to Leadville the moment I am through with my correspondence. 
Have had a delightful visit from a former parishioner at Went- 
worth (Hon. J. E. Sargent, of Concord, N.H.). How many sweet 
and hallowed memories it recalls ! I have lived again in the past. 
We have been with him to the Garden of the Gods, Ute Pass, and 
Glen Eyrie. 

I want time to consider what should be done for New Mexico 
and Utah. The Lord may give our churches a desire to go in and 
possess them, and may raise up some instrumentality for sending 
teachers into them, to be followed by missionary labor. I have 
been absorbed in special localities, so that I have had little 
opportunity to take a comprehensive view of my field. Yet I 



Ch u rch-bu ilding at L eadv ille. 131 

have done what seemed best. I think I have no selfish ambition 
in these things. The shortness of life, the vanity of human ambi- 
tion, the littleness of man, have been impressed upon me as never 
before. Amid the mighty scenes of nature, the Bible has been 
my constant companion. Its truths have been more to me than 
the mountain streams. 

Leadville, September 16. — I came by the new road by Musquito 
Pass ; but, in going over the wildest and most romantic places, we 
were in pitchy darkness. There were a large number of women 
with families coming to meet their husbands, which is cheering to 
those who want to see moral principles established in the moun- 
tains. 

The work here must now be looked to. I spent all yesterday 
going round with the chairman of the building committee. We 
were fortunate in getting part of the native lumber at twenty 
dollars, instead of twenty-five. One of the shingle-mills made an 
offer that the shingle-mills in town should give the shingles. An- 
other seconded the motion. The Lord seems favoring us in our 
extremity. 

September 18. — I collected over one hundred dollars yesterday. 
I have prayed for hopefulness and cheerfulness in this work of 
collecting, and especially in meeting with rebuffs that are so dis- 
couraging ; and I think God is answering my prayer. I fear I did 
not do just right in going home from Cottonwood Springs, instead 
of coming back here. I promised God this morning that I would 
try to be more considerate. 

September 22. — The weather is delightful, though the dust in 
the roads is fearful. I could make up quite a story of the delights 
of spring. Strawberries are in blossom. The robins are abundant 
on Capitol Hill, where I walk each morning. A red squirrel cuts 
up his pranks on the pine-trees near by, seemingly ridiculing my 
devotions. 

Jenks* Station, Dakota, October 1. — The eve is beautiful. The 
Black Hills show themselves in the west, no longer the gloomy 



132 Memoirs of "Joseph W. Pickett. 

solitudes I once saw, but brightened by prayer and Christian work, 
the home of our dear churches. How the love of God and man 
changes the face of nature ! 

October 3. — I left the coach at four o'clock yesterday morning, 
and took " across lots " to Rockerville, nine miles for breakfast. 
The morning was wonderfully beautiful, the sky clear as crystal. 
I called all around, and preached last eve to a large congregation. 
The church has bought the school-house. I am to pay twenty-five 
dollars, and expect to get the money from some source. This 
morning after early breakfast I took a walk to Rapid. When I 
got where the road led down into a wild ravine, I had to strike 
across again ; but I did better than ever before. I found a place 
where the bee line was not perpendicular, and reached Rapid at 
noon. The crops have been fine here, without any irrigation, 
which settles the matter of agriculture. 

Deadwood, October 6. — The coach was behind, Saturday. There 
were twenty-three passengers, but I was favored in riding with 
the driver most of the way. We had over a ton of freight, and 
came slowly. Before the moon rose, it was so dark that, with the 
dust, the smoke of the mountain fires, and piles of baggage, the 
driver was in continual fear of upsetting us. But we soon learn 
to take things as they come. The fires were grand in the hills, 
whole hill-sides livid with flame. We reached here between 
twelve and one, Sabbath morning. The moon shone upon the 
blackened city. Our parsonage is safe, also the church, which has 
cost nearly two thousand dollars. Energy and enterprise are 
throwing up buildings on every side. The church is going for- 
ward in Central, just in the place where I wanted it. At Lead, the 
church is not plastered, but looked nicely, and was dedicated. 
We had an excellent meeting of the Black Hills Association, 
organized an Education society, pushed forward plans for the 
academy at Spearfish, and had an ordination by a council at 
Central. 

Rapid City ', October 20. — Starting from Deadwood on Tuesday, I 
came the next day forty miles, to Custer, the oldest camp in the 



Untiring Labor. 133 

Hills, a beautiful location. The old, deserted houses are occupied 
again. Three years ago there were some thousands of people 
there, now about two hundred. We got in just as pitchy dark- 
ness was gathering around us. A heavy rain came on, the first 
rain in the Hills for several months. As we left Custer, the wind 
was terrible on the high table-land. The grass had been burned ; 
and the cinders flew in our faces, with small stones, so that we 
could not open our eyes. We were obliged to run our horses for 
several miles. We came here on Friday, and the next day drove 
up and down this beautiful valley. The camps west of here have 
taken a new lease of life. Remarkable gold discoveries, recently 
made, may change the centre of population in the Hills. My trip 
has been very pleasant and profitable. It does me much good to 
see our work going forward. 

Leadville, Col., October 27. — Reached here at two P.M., Satur- 
day. It now takes two whole days to come from Denver. I found 
the church up, and shingled, four men at work. As I looked at it, 
I lifted up my heart to God and rejoiced. But the church is in 
debt, and I must help. We want to push the work this beautiful 
weather, if we can get the money. I have prayed that God may 
go before us, and open the hearts of this people. 

After another week of untiring labor at Leadville, 
Mr. Pickett returned to Colorado Springs. He marked 
the first Sunday of November as a " sweet day of rest" 
with his family, and in the afternoon read to them 
Longfellow's " Children of the Lord's Supper." Rev. 
Harlan P. Roberts, of Silverton, who had been a mem- 
ber of his household at Mount Pleasant, was with 
them. A few days afterward, the Colorado Associa- 
tion met at Colorado Springs. He enjoyed the inter- 
change of cordial greetings with his brethren, as they 
came together from their widely separated fields, and 
took part in their discussions with reference to the 



134 Memoirs of Joseph W. Pickett, 

Indian question, education in New Mexico, Renan's 
view of Christ, church music, and progress in religion. 
He reported to them fully his own work, and awakened 
such interest and sympathy that the consideration of 
another subject which had been assigned to follow his 
report was postponed ; and the Association gave itself to 
prayer for the fields in which he had labored and for 
the success of home missions in the regions beyond. 
The officers of the American Home Missionary So- 
ciety at New York had requested him at the earliest 
possible moment to visit Utah, and open up several in- 
cipient preaching stations. This he was intent to do, 
and was only waiting, in order to complete the church 
at Leadville, so that it could be occupied for services of 
public worship. Saturday, he joined his brethren in 
a pleasure excursion to Cheyenne canon, and on the 
Sabbath taught his wife's Bible-class of young ladies, 
shared in the joy of the dedication of a house of wor- 
ship erected by the Congregational Church at Colorado 
Springs, and took part in a missionary meeting in the 
evening, at which a liberal offering was made for the 
church at Leadville. 

Tuesday, after a season of " precious devotion," as 
he entered in his diary, and words of love and counsel 
to dear ones, and an affectionate note to his mother, 
who had sent him some mittens of her own make for 
his comfort in the approaching winter, he was, as he 
wrote to her, u off in a few minutes for Leadville. ,, 
With friends on the train, he indulged in a cheerful 
vein of humor, as was natural to him in social inter- 



His Last Work. 135 

course. The two following days he spent in Denver, 
soliciting help for the church at Leadville, and writing 
nineteen letters to as many mine-owners at the East 
for the same object. He also purchased windows and 
seats for the church, and was planning to have it ready 
for occupancy on the second Sabbath following. "We 
cannot wait till spring,'' he said. " Spring comes too 
late upon the mountains. I must hurry, and keep the 
workmen at that church." In a letter to Mrs. Pickett, 
he sent his love to the boys, and said, "Tell them I am 
going to ask, when I come, which of them did the most 
to make our home the happiest, brightest spot on 
earth." He led a church prayer-meeting Wednesday 
evening, and the following day had an interview with 
the Governor of Colorado, who gave him good reports 
of the work at Silverton, and of the missionary there, 
and also encouraged him with sympathy and aid for 
the church at Leadville. He heard favorable opinions 
expressed as to his own labors, and was assured of the 
growing regard and esteem that was felt for himself 
and for his work throughout the mountain region. 
Mentioning this, in writing to his wife, he added, " May 
we give reputation, influence, life itself, to Him who 
gave so much for us!" This was on the 13th of 
November. That evening, he took the train on the 
Denver, South Park, and Pacific Railroad, in a snow- 
storm, and the following morning sent his usual mes- 
sage as to where he was, and of affection to his family, 
with the words : " On cars, South Park, midst of snow- 
storm. Hope to get over range without trouble." 



136 Memoirs of Joseph W. Pickett. 

The storm was of extreme violence ; the winds blew 
a tempest ; the snow was a foot deep, and obstructed 
the headway of the train. The end of the track, 
which was then at Weston, one hundred and eight 
miles from Denver, was not reached until four hours 
after the schedule time. The storm was then at its 
height. Some of the passengers were inclined to lie 
over until the next day. But hoping to get over the 
worst of the road before sunset, and intent on reaching 
their home or their business at Leadville, and having 
a careful and reliable driver, who had driven through 
many a mountain storm, it was decided to go on. Mr. 
Pickett was well acquainted with the driver, having 
rode with him several times on former journeys, and 
on this occasion requested him to reserve the seat 
which he occupied. There were fourteen passengers, 
nine inside the coach, three of whom were ladies, and 
five on the outside. Mr. Pickett was among the latter, 
his seat by the driver. They started shortly after 
noon, Friday, November 14th, with buffalo robes, 
wraps, and blankets to protect them from the cold. It 
was a rough drive to Platte Station, the snow blowing 
in such clouds that it was impossible to see any length 
ahead. Even the horses at times could not be seen. 
At this place, the driver told the passengers that they 
might remain over night, if they preferred. Still 
hoping, however, to get over the worst of the road at 
least, before night, they said that they would proceed, 
if the driver was willing. He expressed no hesitation, 
and the battle with the storm was resumed. 






In a Mountain Storm. 137 

The first delay was in ascending Weston Pass, 
caused by a freighter's wagon, which blocked the 
road, until a team from a wagon in front came to its 
assistance. Nearly half an hour was lost at this point. 
The snow and hail continued to come down furiously, 
almost blinding- those on the outside. Once or twice, 
they became so chilled that they alighted, and walked 
a short distance to warm themselves. On one of these 
occasions, Mr. Pickett remarked that he did not like 
being locked up in the boot, because it would be diffi- 
cult to escape in case of an accident. He further 
stated that he had tried, but was not able to unbuckle 
the straps. He expressed his confidence in the driver, 
and said that he thought no accident would occur while 
he held the reins. Shortly after, he resumed his seat 
in the boot, and was in good spirits. 

Another delay was occasioned by freighters, who 
were stalled on a hill near Lower Rocky Station. An 
hour passed before this obstruction was removed. It 
was now nearly dark. From this place, the coach 
went along smoothly, until about seven o'clock, when 
the driver stopped his six horses, and warmed his 
hands by slapping them across his body, to get the 
right feeling in them, as he said, for the extra exertion 
required in going down the mountain. Then they 
rushed along at rapid gait. The sleet and snow were 
blowing in blinding fury, freezing to the face. In 
descending a steep pitch on sideling ground, about 
eleven miles from Leadville, the driver put on the 
brake ; but it became obstructed with snow, and would 



138 Memoirs of yoseph W. Pickett. 

not hold. He made a desperate effort to pull in the 
horses; but they became unmanageable, and sheered 
to the left, to avoid the brunt of the storm. Here the 
coach upset, turning completely over on its top. The 
outside passengers were thrown away from or under it ; 
and those inside were thrown on their heads, with their 
feet up. The horses became uncoupled, and pulled 
over the driver, who was holding the reins firmly. He 
escaped with a severe injury on his shoulder. The 
injured passengers slowly and painfully extricated 
themselves from the wreck. In the confusion, the 
bruised and wounded received attention first. No 
person in the company had a match to strike a light 
or kindle a fire. Nearly an hour elapsed before it was 
found that Mr. Pickett was fastened in by the boot- 
apron, and was dead. As the coach went over, he was 
heard to exclaim, " O my God ! " He was killed in- 
stantly. His neck was broken. To appropriate to 
him language in which, a short time previously, he had 
depicted the moment after death, — "Time was no 
more. The struggles and weariness of earth were 
ended. The responsibilities of life were laid down. 
The Rocky Mountains and the great globe faded away. 
The white hills of Paradise dawned, bathed in ever- 
lasting righteousness; and he saw the city which hath 
foundations, and the King in his beauty." 

As soon as his remains were taken from the wreck, 
three of the passengers walked to the Nine-mile House 
for assistance ; and the next day the body was removed 
to Leadville. A meeting of the Protestant pastors of 



Funeral Services. 139 

the city was convened in the evening at the Methodist 
parsonage, and resolutions of respect for his memory 
as " a good man and an earnest and eloquent preacher 
of Christ, who had fallen at his post, and had gone to 
receive a crown of righteousness," were adopted ; and 
arrangements were made for funeral services to be held 
at the Presbyterian church Sunday afternoon. The 
pastors acted as pall-bearers. Though the weather 
was cold and snow was falling, the house was filled to 
overflowing ; and the whole community attested their 
sympathy and their regard for one who had laid down 
his life in the service of Christ and his fellow-men. 
Impressive addresses were delivered by Rev. R. Weiser 
and Rev. Charles R. Bliss. 

At Colorado Springs, the news of the calamity broke 
with fearful shock upon his family and friends. The 
body was brought to the desolated home November 19. 
On the following day, appropriate services were held at 
the Congregational church. Many came from near and 
far, testifying the love and respect in which Mr. Pickett 
was cherished. The pastor, Rev. R. T. Cross, gave an 
address, reviewing his life and labors and portraying 
his character, from which the following extracts are 
taken : — 

We are all mourners to-day. Our souls are bowed down with 
a great grief, our hearts are crushed with a great sorrow. Like 
little children, we stand in the presence of this strange scene, 
wondering what it means. Yet not for one moment do we doubt 
God's overruling providence, nor distrust his wisdom, goodness, 
and love. For, if we give up our faith in these, all is gone ; and 
we stand no longer on a solid rock. Bowing then in grief, but 



140 Memoirs of Joseph W. Pickett. 

without a murmur, to the will of God, let us look at our brother's 
life 

His was a successful life, a grand and glorious life, because it 
was a Christ-like life. 

i. In his genial, affable, friendly spirit toward every one whom 
he met. Those who only casually met him noticed it. When 
entering upon his superintendency in Iowa, he laid down certain 
principles or rules *that he strove to follow. The first one was, " I 
shall try to avoid that cold, indifferent manner, characteristic of 
agents and others who travel and mingle much with men. I shall 
pray for a warm, Christ-like heart, glowing with love and sympa- 
thy for all. I shall endeavor even among crowds of strangers to 
feel that Christ died for them, and shall pray that they may be 
delivered from sin, and become his followers." Many can witness 
to the faithful manner in which he carried out this resolve. 

2. Indomitable energy, great enthusiasm and hopefulness, burn- 
ing zeal, and a spirit of self-sacrifice were prominent elements of 
his character. The way in which he pushed the work in the 
Black Hills, and the way in which he was pushing the work of 
building a church at Leadville, were proofs of his energy. Where 
others saw great obstacles he saw them too ; but he saw also a 
mightier power, and was hopeful and enthusiastic in regard to the 
hardest fields. The burning zeal for upbuilding the Redeemer's 
kingdom, for which he prayed when a student, was his to the end. 
Nothing could quench it. It burned brighter and brighter to the 
last. " I will pray," he said, " that this lovely Iowa may be given 
to the Saviour for his inheritance." And that was his prayer for 
Colorado and the new West. On the fly-leaf of Fossett's Colorado, 
which he presented to his wife on her birthday, he wrote : " Shall 
it not be our daily prayer, my dear wife, that as I have given you 
this book, and written your name upon it, so Christ may give us 
this State, that we, when life's work is done, may give it to him 
with his own name written in enduring characters on all its 
mountains and valleys and precious things?" 

In addition to his self-sacrifice for the churches, let me speak 
of another and costlier sacrifice. For nearly ten years, he was a 



Address of Rev. R. T. Cross. 141 

widower, with no home. When he established a home here, he 
enjoyed it intensely. It was a quiet haven for him, a little heaven 
on earth, when he returned from his tedious journeys. Yet for 
months he was away from that home, spending the time in rough 
mining-camps, with few comforts, and no conveniences for study. 
At one time, he was absent nearly four months; and, of the eigh- 
teen months he has been in Colorado, he spent only about four at 
home. This costly sacrifice he made for the Master's sake. 

3. He was a man of prayer. He walked with God continually. 
He prayed daily for the Home Missionary Society, and for all the 
churches and pastors on his field. As soon as we heard him talk 
and pray when he came to Colorado, we knew that he was the 
right man: and we thanked God for sending him. Although 
pastor of the church to which he belonged, I looked upon him as 
our pastor, and shall feel his loss most keenly. His prayers had 
much to do, I have no doubt, with the blessings which this church 
has received. In lonely forests, on mountain-tops, and in dark 
canons, he pleaded with God. Often he w r ould take his Bible and 
go up on the mountain-side, and, looking down, as Christ did upon 
Jerusalem, plead for the mining-camp at his feet. His memory 
will have no nobler monument than his work in the Black Hills : 
seven churches, five ministers on the ground, four church build- 
ings, three parsonages, an association, a Bible society, and an 
academy, — all the work of about one year. But the key to that 
wonderful work is found, as he has told us, in that day when, 
detained by high water at Jenney's Stockade, he took his Bible, 
went out into the fields, and spent the day in prayer for the Black 
Hills. As he prayed, the whole work opened before him, just as 
it was afterwards carried out. 

Words cannot express the sympathy we feel for the afflicted 
family and friends. We can only point them to the promises, to 
the joyful hope and triumphant faith of that gospel which their 
loved one preached so faithfully. And what a glorious legacy he 
has left you ! If all the mines of the Rocky Mountains were 
owned by one man, and he should die and leave them to his 
family, he would not leave so rich, so precious, so grand a legacy 



142 Memoirs of Joseph W. Pickett, 

as your loved one has left you, — the legacy of a spotless name, a 
noble Christian life. 

Fellow-laborers in Christ's vineyard, ministers and laymen of 
every denomination, as we stand by the lifeless form of this faith- 
ful servant of God, let us consecrate ourselves anew to the work 
for which he laid down his life. He gave his life for the church 
at Leadville, but in a larger sense he gave it for the whole church 
of Christ on earth. He was a chosen and trusted leader in one 
division of the church militant, but he fought under the banner of 
our common Christianity. Let us follow in his footsteps, because 
they were the footsteps of the Master. 

Beloved brother, your life has not been in vain. The world is 
better for your having lived in- it. Your example is an inspiration 
to us all. You have kept the faith, and now you have received 
the crown of rejoicing from the Lord. 

As the report of his sudden death was borne over 
the land, many hearts were stricken as with a personal 
bereavement. The miners and ranchmen of the Rocky 
Mountains joined in lamentation with the dwellers 
upon the prairies. 

" The beauty of Israel is slain upon thy high places : 
How are the mighty fallen in the midst of the battle ! " 

At Denver, one said, " Nothing since Lincoln's 
death has given us such a shock and such sinking of 
heart. " The Black Hills were filled with sadness. 
Memorial services were held at Lead City and Dead- 
wood, also at Mount Pleasant, Iowa. Former scholars 
and parishioners, and his brethren in the ministry, 
recorded their remembrances of his sympathetic and 
generous nature, his fine Christian enthusiasm, his 
fervid devotion, and his unselfish life: — 

He was a soldier; but his kindly, congenial nature won over 



Tributes to his Character. 143 

men instead of arousing their hostility. He was so inconsiderate 
of self, so full of abiding trust in his Master, that even the strong- 
est natures could not withhold their respect. What struck me 
on first acquaintance was his abounding hopefulness and cheerful- 
ness, never yielding to despondency or discouragement, but finding 
comfort and strength where others saw only clouds and darkness. 
His special and continued regard for the church at Mount Pleas- 
ant was manifested in so many ways as to demand mention and 
the life-long respect of all who find in it a spiritual home. Up to 
the removal of his children, in 1877, he was a regular contributor 
to the maintenance of its services, paying from fifty to one hun- 
dred dollars annually out of his meagre salary as missionary 
superintendent. John Teesdale. 

One who knew him both in Iowa and in the Black 
Hills wrote: — 

It has been my pleasure to know Mr. Pickett intimately from 
near the beginning of his pastorate at Mount Pleasant. I remem- 
ber how active he then was in the duties pertaining to his charge, 
how he worked for the young people, visited the schools, taking 
more interest than any of the other pastors, and was zealous in 
every good work. Afterwards, he entered a wider field, and be- 
came a missionary through Southern Iowa, carrying to weak points 
words of courage, and to suffering hearts consolation and hope. 
His efficiency and zeal as a Christian apostle induced the Mission- 
ary Society to send him to Colorado and Western Dakota, where 
he labored among the rude spirits of the frontier, the unorganized 
elements of the mining-camps. Church after church sprung up 
as the result of his toil, and hundreds of people were led by his 
teaching to a better life. He had such kind, earnest, sincere 
ways, without ostentation, without hypocrisy. Rough men would 
suppress an oath and sacrilegious jest, when he was near. Scoff- 
ers at religion would go to hear him preach, when they would 
hear no other. At the homes and firesides of the frontier, he had 
a cheering word, a sunny smile, to lighten the burdens and brighten 



144 Memoirs of Joseph W. Pickett. 

the pathway of life. We shall hear no more his cordial greeting, 
shake no more his friendly hand, nor hear his earnest words, 
warning men not to do evil, exhorting them to do good. Yet he 
still lives in the memory of his earnest labor and bright example. 
In the hearts of the people, he built his monument. All who 
knew him praise the Great Giver for the lesson of his noble life. 

Edwin Van Cise. 



Mr. Pickett impressed me with a marvellous religious energy 
and enthusiasm. It was the zeal of the Lord of hosts. Stanch 
in his faith, he was no bigot. There was room in his heart and 
welcome for all who loved the cross, whatever other divergences 
there might be. A Church of Christ without other name than 
that of the Master would have been his preference. I never met 
a man more sanguine in his spirit, less inclined to count odds in 
questions of the Kingdom and its advancement. I shall not forget 
the conqueror spirit with which at Leadville he claimed for Jesus 
the ground on which Satan was intrenched. 

Charles C. Salter, 

Pastor at Denver, 1877-79. 



To us, no man in Colorado seemed more needed, and no man in 
our ministerial ranks appeared more fitted for the peculiar and 
important work he was called to do. A prince indeed has fallen 
in Israel. No one who heard him and observed his movements 
at the Association could doubt his readiness for the translation. 
We could not fail to see that he had been with Jesus. The 
Master was seen in his burning zeal and earnest prayers, in his 
thoughts that breathed a deeper spiritual life, in his passion for 
souls, in his sweetness of spirit, and in his extreme watchfulness 
and jealousy lest anything should hinder the Kingdom. His life 
motto, carried into practice, seemed to be, "All and always for 
Christ." Joseph Adams, 

Cottonwood Springs, Colorado. 



Tributes to his Character. 145 

He was well fitted for his work. It was hard; but he loved it. 
His whole soul was in it. He understood men, and knew how to 
take hold of them. He never needed a second introduction. He 
was a man of noble courage. He smiled at self-denial. So, too, 
he was a most thoughtful and considerate man. The drivers of 
the stage-coaches upon which he travelled knew him. He could 
call them by name, and tell you much of their history. These 
drivers have lost a friend. C. M. Sanders, 

Pastor at Cheyenne, Wyoming Territory. 



He brought to Colorado from his superintendency in Iowa an 
amount of experience, sagacity, enthusiasm, energy, and personal 
attractions that specially fitted him for his post amid the pecu- 
liar conditions and social elements of the mountains. A more 
truly spiritual, devout, consecrated man we have rarely met. 
u Always about his Father's business,'' could be said as truly of 
few men. We can hardly think of that tireless spirit as at rest. 
With his whole soul intent on his work, at a time when it would 
seem he could ill be spared, the Master's word summoned him to 
other activities in a higher sphere. There was but an instant's 
notice ; yet who can doubt the prompt response of that ever- 
girded soul, " Here am I " ? His memory will long be cherished 
as his work will be felt. 

The Home Missionary, 1880. 



LINES SUGGESTED BY THE DEATH OF REV. JOSEPH W. PICKETT. 

" He is dead among the mountains ! " 

Thus the ringing message sped ; 
And a thousand hearts' deep fountains 

Stirred with grief, and tears were shed; 
And the East land and the West land 

Felt a loss beyond repair, 
When they heard the dreadful message, 

When they knew the dead was there. 



146 Memoirs of yoseph W. Pickett. 

Ne'er did Colorado's mountains, 

Since they reared their rock-ribbed sides 
From the plain that once^encased them 

Into " continent divides," 
Echo back so sad a story, 

So supremely sad, I trow, 
As this fearful death in darkness, 

'Mid the blinding sleet and snow. 

Ah, how hard it was to drink it ! — 

This, the dregs of sorrow's cup. 
Ah, how long we could not think it, — 

Could not, would not, give him up ! 
How we reasoned that the missive 

Had most surely been misread ! 
But the lightning-voice repeated, 

" He is in the mountains, dead." 

Dead ! yes, deadl No more we'll meet him, 

Hear no more his ringing voice. 
Home and friends no more will greet him, 

In his love no more rejoice. 
Overwhelmed with grief and sorrow, 

Sad they wait, but wait in vain : 
He who left so late, so brightly, 

Ne'er can light that home again. 

But, amid its gloom and sadness, 

Comes sweet consolation's breath, 
Bringing whispered words of gladness, 

Gilding e'en the cloud of death ; 
Telling that, with strength unbated, 

From the battle's thickest strife, 
Like the saint of old, translated, 

He was ushered into life. 

Toil and strife for him thus ending, 

Every duty nobly done, 
Leaving memories full of blessing, 

Loved and mourned by every one, 



His Character. 147 

In a moment, in a twinkling, 

From earth's mountains, cold and bare, 

Passed he to the hills eternal, 
Everlasting joys to share. 

From the darkness and the tempest, 

And the chilling, freezing blasts, 
To "the light and warmth of Beulah, 

Where the spring-time ever lasts, — 
Thus he passed ; but left his mantle, 

E'en a life so noble, pure, 
That its fragrance will continue 

Long as love and truth endure. 

I knew him intimately since 1856. Was with him the two years 
he taught in Tennessee. The record of his life should be kept 
as an inspiration to every struggling soul. 

J. W. Phillips. 
St. Louis, November, 1879. 

Mr. Pickett was of a sanguine-nervous temperament. 
With Christian zeal aflame, and with great openings for 
usefulness before him, it was his nature to overwork. 
His ardor and activity would carry him beyond bounds ; 
but, though exhausted with excessive labors, and some- 
times losing patience with those who had less persist- 
ence and endurance, and speaking unadvisedly, he was 
rarely depressed, and was without moroseness or mixt- 
ure of melancholy. His spiritual energy seemed to 
rebound from every fatigue. He exercised careful scru- 
tiny over himself, and ruled and restrained his spirit 
with strict discipline. The grace and virtue he attained 
came not without painstaking and prayer. A deep 
consciousness of sin and humility of mind were among 
the foundations of his religious life. 



148 Memoirs of "Joseph W. Pickett. 

Thoroughly independent and self-reliant, his nature 
was equally genial and fraternal. He made others' 
joys and sorrows his own. No one prized Christian 
fellowship more, or would go farther to maintain it. 

With his brethren in the ministry and with the 
executive officers of the American Home Missionary 
Society, he was in cordial relations. Warm in his 
domestic attachments, he was scrupulous as to any 
encroachment upon his missionary work. The only 
temporal provision that he made was in carrying a 
small life-insurance policy. He gave unusual consid- 
eration to the words of Christ about leaving all for his 
sake and the gospel's. But he would not allow one 
duty to dispense with another. In absences from 
home, daily epistles to his family bore to them his love 
and care. 

With frequent opportunities before him for profitable 
business ventures and for investments in lands and in 
mines, he never turned aside to any of them, but kept 
himself wholly intent upon his work. He followed 
closely the sentiment of the apostle, which he made 
his daily motto for years : — 

This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, 
and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press 
toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ 
Jesus. — Phil, iii., 13, 14. 

On one occasion, in the Black Hills, going over from 
Lead City to Central, he discovered some fine speci- 
mens of ore, and gathered them up in his handkerchief. 
But finding himself pondering upon them and their 



His Life- Work. 149 

probable value, and upon making a mining-claim, and 
perceiving that the matter was taking some hold of 
his mind, and that it might distract his thoughts, he 
at once shook his handkerchief to the winds, and, 
repeating aloud his motto, knelt upon the ground, and 
renewed his consecration to his life-work. 

The evangelization of our country, the establishment 
of churches and institutions of Christian education in 
the new States, was the passion of his life. In this 
work, he was ready to hold fellowship with all true be- 
lievers ; and he encouraged their union in one Christian 
church, wherever it was practicable in new communi- 
ties, and in those of limited population. In harmony 
with these sentiments, he prosecuted his missionary 
labors, and planted churches in the interior of the 
continent, and in vast mountain regions. In Iowa, 
he introduced moral and religious order in numerous 
places, carried saving health into thousands of homes, 
and gave powerful support to churches, schools, and 
colleges. To the Rocky Mountains, he brought greater 
treasures than their mines will ever yield. Visiting 
from house to house, from cabin to cabin, and from 
mine to mine, and preaching with a prophet's fervor, 
he organized Christian society, and laid foundations for 
the development of the kingdom of God in righteous- 
ness and peace. 

" How beautiful upon the mountains 
Are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, 
That publisheth peace, 
That bringeth good tidings of good, 
That publisheth salvation, 
That saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth ! " 



150 Memoirs of yoseph W. Pickett. 

He rests from his labors, and his works do follow him. Others 
have entered into them. The church at Leadville recovered from 
the shock occasioned by his death, and completed and dedicated 
their house of worship on the first Sabbath in June, 1880. They 
gave it the name of the Pickett Memorial Church, and placed his 
portrait upon the wall. The Spearfish Academy is rising into use- 
fulness and honor. The corner-stone of a new building for its use 
was laid by the governor of Dakota Territory, July 24, 1880. 

It remains for many brave and valiant men to carry forward 
these labors, and plant the gospel over all these regions, and 
possess the New West and the continent in the name of the Lord 
Jesus, with Christian homes and schools and churches. This 
volume has been prepared in the fond hope that its record of 
earnest devotion to the work may awaken a similar spirit of con- 
secration in some generous bosoms, and also call forth liberal 
offerings of silver and gold for the support of home missions and 
Christian education in the United States. 



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